Candy Corn Bark
1 bag dark chocolate chips
1 bag white chocolate chips
1 bag candy corn

Here, readers, is where I’ll lead you astray if you follow my example. I grabbed two bags of dark-looking chips, because I personally think white chocolate is disgusting (when I got home I realized the chips I bought were actually “semi-sweet.” Close enough, right?). I begrudgingly picked up the candy corn too, which I haven’t eaten in 15 years because of a very traumatizing experience with them one Halloween.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

(You’ll need an ice cream maker for this one!)
15-oz can of pumpkin puree
1.5 cups cream

3/4 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 t. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. brandy

Now what the hell was this? Who under the age of 30 has an ice cream maker? It seems my co-editor was setting me up to fail. Three months ago, when we collaborated on creating “Citrus Wine Kebobs” for the Food section, the most I had contributed was letting Sarah use my charcoal grill. Now she trusted me with homemade ice cream? I again ignored the ingredients list and improvised.

Once at home, I quickly skimmed the full recipes, which I suppose I should have done before I even went shopping for ingredients, and started cooking (after downing a snifter of the brandy I had bought for the moral support pumpkin ice cream):

Melt the dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips in separate pans.

Easy enough. I dumped the chips in a saucepan and fwooshed the gas stove to medium high. I stirred and the chips started sweating. Of course that was the moment I remembered hearing chocolate could only be melted in a double boiler, or it would burn. Oh no, oh no. A premonition of future offspring in Halloween costumes weeping as I flailed around a smoking pan of chocolate moved me to start fumbling around the cabinet for a pot for water. By the time I had found it, however, the chocolate on the stove had melted perfectly, no sign of inflammation. I quickly turned it over to the cookie sheet before it decided to change its mind.

And then I realized I should have read more carefully, because the next step was:

Once melted, spread the white chocolate onto a well-greased cookie sheet.

I was so frustrated with myself I couldn’t even swear; I just though of the little cartoon swear signs: #$%@*!.

Allow this to cool and harden (use the fridge or freezer to speed up the process) and then spread the next chocolate layer.

I all but threw the thing into my fridge, pulling out the stale ice cubes and frozen waffles to make space.

Before the dark chocolate hardens, press candy corn pieces into the chocolate, then allow your chocolate bark to harden.

I dutifully poured the candy corn bag over the chocolate, thus rendering it something I would never eat, ever.

Break or cut it into pieces, and enjoy!

Even if I wanted to break into pieces, I couldn’t because it is now fused to the bottom of the pan. The pan still sits in my rarely-used oven today; I keep forgetting to try and get it melty enough to scrape off.

Recipe Verdict: F minus. If done the way Sarah says to do it by someone who likes candy corn, it might be very good.

I have good news for the ice cream, however. I’ll post my alternate recipe here, in hopes that you’ll try it too; it’s very easy to make.

(Ingredients: Tub of homemade vanilla ice cream, 1 can pumpkin puree, cinnamon and brandy to taste)

Pull the ice cream out of the freezer and let it get soft, but not melted. Scoop out a portion into a bowl with a wooden spoon and add 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree per 1 cup ice cream. Mix until the ice cream is an even, creamy orange. Add cinnamon and brandy to taste. Scoop back into container or into a separate container and refreeze.

This went off without a hitch! Grade A, and as a bonus, a self esteem boost for this recipe user; maybe I’m not a complete bonehead in the kitchen after all!

Tyler Perry wrote our feature on Lotus Fest this month; turn to page 3 to find out all about it (and of what it is the namesake; here’s a hint, it’s not the flower).  I found out more about Louts performer Frigg on page 8, and Sarah Fargo rose to the occasion by not only interviewing Lotus volunteer coordinator Tamara Lowenthal, but Lee Williams, the director.  There’s also content about life outside the Lotus folds; page 12 yields several reasons why, even after a year with my own kitchen, I’ll never be a decent homemaker, and Ben and Nick bring the usual goodness to you on our last page.

I’m honored to work with a Cultureweek staff that not only humors my editorial exuberance, but brings that brainstorming to life.  Special thanks, like every month, go to my co-editor for bringing me back down to earth to make it in time for deadline.  More thanks go out this month to Luanne at Lotus, Liz at Rock Paper Scissors, Lucy and Abe at Secretly Canadian and Karl at MFT.  I’m signing off now, readers; in a year of writing for Cultureweek, the thrill that you’re reading these issues hasn’t dulled a bit.

Cheers,

Dawn K. Shanks

I was able to catch up with Antti Järvelä  of the Finnish string band Frigg.  The band is no stranger to Lotus Festival, but according to Antti, they’re still excited about their 2008 performance.  Throughout the interview, Antti kept me laughing but still had some very interesting outlooks on music and mission statements.   After listening to some of the band’s songs on myspace, I can only describe their sound as jolly, down-home and intricate, especially when it comes to the fiddling.  However, they more aptly describe their music as Kaustinen folk string music.  Kaustinen is an area in Finland known for its annual folk music festival.  Frigg will be performing October 2.  Anyone that spends 5 minutes listening to them isn’t immune to their infectious positive attitude and good vibes.  Read on:

Dawn: I wonder what was the impetus for naming the group Frigg? Is it after the goddess of fertility?  Is there another reason why you chose this name?

Antti: Just a coincidence with a dictionary even though the name kind of fits us because we’re still pretty young and fascinated about what we do.

Dawn: How is the dynamic between group members?

Antti: Getting better every year.

Dawn: Is it a serious group or are you guys always having fun?

Antti: Last year we toured the States for 6 weeks and no arguments at all! We’re really trying to have as much fun all the time as we can. Really a fantastic group to be on the road with.

Dawn: I had a feeling from your Myspace page, which says “Nordic Fiddling Fun!”  And you do tours in Europe and Australia as well?

Antti: In Europe, yes, but Australia is still waiting. We really want to go there soon, too. USA has been our main focus so far because we can basically go for one longer tour each year and the States has been kind of our #1 investment in past years. We’re about to focus more on Europe, too in the future.

Dawn: Tell me, what were your childhood experiences that led to you picking up the fiddle?  And why bass now?  And Estonian bagpipes—how did that come about?

Antti: There was a little reason called my parents.  They took me to have lessons from my uncle Mauno Järvelä (the father of Alina & Esko) when I was 4 years old. Mauno was then the leader of a youth group called  Järvelän Näppärit and with that group we also did our first trip to the USA ever. In the group there were mainly fiddle players accompanied by some older guys from the local village-scene and also some professional musicians–Timo Alakotila (a member of JPP etc.), to mention one.  Later on when the older folks couldn’t join every rehearsal some of us started playing the reed organ, guitar and the bass. My second instrument was actually the mandolin - after mandolin I picked the guitar and last but not least came the bass when I was in my late teenage.  Petri, Frigg’s mandolin and cittern player,  started playing Estonian bagpipes at some point after discovering Finnish folk music. He must have liked the sound (also some of his early friends from the folk music scene - one to mention again - Kurt Lindblad - played the Estonian bagpipes).

Dawn: What a list! I wish we saw some of these instruments in music in the States.

Antti: There has been also some Finnish bagpipes, but it’s been only some prototypes rebuilt during the few past years. Petri is pretty desperate to show off with the Finnish bagpipes because in the fashion world he might not have such a chance, I suppose…

You have such a great traditional scene also in the States if you go a bit deeper from the surface. In the counterpoint of 19th and 20th century there were lots of people all around  northern Europe moving to the States and really bringing a huge variety of different musical styles and instruments to melt together on the new continent.

Dawn: However, I fear there isn’t much variety in our popular music scene today.  I’m glad to have a good college radio station in my town.

Antti: The pop scene is 90% about business. But as we’ve seen, businesses fall, music stays. There will be times ahead when people search for exotic things and the more difficult it gets to travel in the future the closer (from our own backyards) we can find exotics again.

Dawn: That is very profound!  So, any mission statement with your music?  I suppose that is a heavy question, but I’ve read about how your families and now you and your band mates have been influential in teaching young people the fiddle.

Antti: The mission could be just to enjoy life. If I can enjoy and show that I enjoy what I do, maybe the folks listening and seeing me can hear it and feel good too.  At least we get to do what we want the most, and that’s fun!  We get to travel and see a lot, we get to spend quality time with best friends, we meet new people all the time. Two days in a row in our lives are never too similar.

Dawn: That sounds great.  So your first Lotus Festival…was that more nervousness or fun?

Antti: Our first Lotusfest was early 2000, or was it 2003? First of all it was really exciting to go to the States with Frigg. I was excited about the music we played and also how the band had developed with such a fast tempo. We had some nice time with Lee [Lotus director] and had great local beers! It was also so great to find out that we really got a small group of fans there after our first show. I wonder how it’s going to be this year…I think we play better, we enjoy more on the stage, we have plenty of new good tunes but haven’t forgotten the good old ones either.

Dawn: Oh good, you like the Upland beer?  Me too.

Antti: Petri just went wild when I told him that we’re going back to Bloomington… Just hands up in the air and yoo-hoooing.

Dawn: So what to expect from Frigg this year at Lotus?  This will be my first festival.  Any surprises?

Antti: Hopefully our gigs there will be full, hopefully we’ll sell all the CDs we’ve brought, hopefully we’ll get offered some nice local beers, hopefully you’ll also find your way there and get partly to make my expectations come true.

Dawn: I will definitely be there, though one night I am a volunteer.  I have to make sure no one leaves the festival parameters with their beers.  I fear I won’t be very popular that night.

Antti: Don’t worry; we’ll be carrying them only in our bellies.

Dawn: Do you have any parting words of wisdom, or anything else you’d like people to know before Lotus?

Antti: I’m not too good in sharing wisdom. You could just convince people that the “hot fiddles from cool Scandinavia” are coming to the oasis of Indiana and they are going to make and have a good time!

More information about Frigg can be found on the Lotus Festival Website, lotusfest.org.

“Music!  Skipping! Go!”  Invoking the spirit of an old-school choreographer, Randy gesticulates with a broom in hand as a CD starts, Peter skips and Anne swoons, while the rest of the cast sets the table.  Avery Wigglesworth, as Anne, with eyebrows expressive enough to rival Millie Perkins (Anne in the 1959 film) exclaims her urges to Peter, who remains unaware (at this point, he’s setting the table, too).  “The sun is shining!”  croons Anne.  Outside, the #4 bus rumbles by the windows.

“You might have seen the dorkiest part of our rehearsal,” Randy later tells me, referring in part to the ten minutes following the skipping, a sober and sincere discussion on how the characters would set the table.

Randy, artistic director of Cardinal Stage Company, has been directing for 22 years.  He explains agonizing over the table setting as a very important step.  “I want the actors to move without second thoughts; if they have to stop and think about why they’re placing the fork like so, it’s going to freeze them up.  Think of if you were operating a backhoe.  If your mind was tied up on how the levers in the machine were operating, how could you do any real work?”

The Diary of Anne Frank was chosen to be the first production of Cardinal’s 2008-2009 season because Randy discovered there was a new adaptation of the play originally written in the 1950s. The rewrite, published after unread portions of Anne’s diary were released after Otto Frank’s death in 1995, baldly includes more aspects of Judaism, teenage hormones and bitter truth about life in the Secret Annex than its milquetoast ‘50s counterpart.  “So many people think of Anne Frank as being a heartwarming, feel good play; I don’t agree.  I read a perceptive, intelligent good-natured young woman, coming of age, experiencing a great loss, but still trying to work through the ridiculous situation.”

Set to perform at Waldron Auditorium, this production of Anne does not have a quirky concept, but Randy and his cast are keeping history’s facts and figures on the backburner to the lines in the script and their own intuitions.  “Characterization is a challenge,” says Mike Price, playing Otto Frank.  “Do you play the historical figure, or the character in the play?  In this case, I grew a moustache,” he laughs, “but Otto is not a loud or flamboyant role.  I think the more you develop a character, the more he starts to remind you of people you know.”

“I’m not trying to completely embody and become the same Anne Frank we learn about in school,” adds Avery, speaking of her character.  As Randy explains, the play is mostly a story of eight people, stuck in hiding together, that have to learn to get along.  The tension comes more from human foibles than the audience knowing the ending already.   Educational activities like a Teacher Training Workshop and a conversation with the playwright Wendy Kesselman and Anne Frank scholar David Barnouw on September 16 and 17 are educational outreach, not necessarily meant to enrich and inform the performance for audiences.

“Anne Frank has more props than any other Cardinal production,” Randy says ruefully, and I think back to rehearsal and the Great Dilemma of How to Pass Out the Forks (“Sausage and Theatre!  Two things you don’t want to see being made,” Randy quipped).  “But it was never my aim to create exactly how the hiding place looked, just the feel of it.  Just like how The Diary of Anne Frank isn’t a verbatim recitation of the diary, but the feel of it.”

Before I left rehearsal, the cast was starting to agree on how the cutlery would go around the table.  I watched them prepare for dinner one last time, and had the feeling by performance time, they’d be able to do it in the dark.

I’m going to keep this short because I’m eager for you to turn the pages of this month’s Cultureweek to read about some exciting things happening in August.  The writing aesthetic we try to achieve is the same one we have for our layout:  crisp, with a touch of whimsy.  I’ve been happy to find that, while at a party or a gallery opening, people are talking about Cultureweek.  We want to publish what you have to say about what’s in Cultureweek and how it’s written, so send feedback on this months issue to feedback(at)cultureweek(.)com to be published on this page in next month’s issue. I look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,
Dawn

Bloomington’s Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts takes place during the last weekend of the month, 10am - 6pm on August 30 and 10am - 5pm on August 31.

“My favorite part of the festival…” muses Cappi Phillips, mosaic mixed media sculptor who works with her husband in their studio Moe’s Ache “Is probably that Fourth Street is more than an art and craft show…it has developed a great reputation among artists, so we get applicants from all over the US.”
Cappi has been involved with the committee that organizes the festival for about eight years and this year coordinates instructions for the festival jurors, “This year, five judges from the community will visit and score each of the 112 exhibitors’ works at the show.” Participants this year were pulled from a pool of applicants over 350 deep.
When asked about any changes being made to the festival from last year and the hallmark 30th Anniversary festival in 2006, Fourth Street Committee Vice President Martina Celerin says “there are changes every year, each year there’s a little progression.” She also points out that about half the artists featured this year haven’t shown at the festival for at least two years “So it gives this year a really fresh feel.”

Besides her work with the committee, Martina is a local weaver who creates 3D tapestries. She’s enjoyed spending the summer break at home with her school aged sons, and is excited about probably the biggest change to this year’s festival, the “community tree.”

The “tree” is a 3D construction with a limestone trunk sculpted by Amy Brier and branches pieced together with baling wire and yarn by Martina, “So much wire…I spent hours winding yarn around wire I bent to look like branches.” One thousand leaves were cut out of recycled materials, and at the festival, kids are invited to decorate a leaf in ways that represents themselves. The leaves will be hung on the tree, and this highly collaborative work of art will be put on permanent display after the festival.

Hats are often tipped to Bloomington as being the heavyweight in culture-rich cities in Indiana, but rest assured, Fourth Street is not the only summer art festival in the state. The 38th Broad Ripple Art Fair was this May, and the Penrod Art Fair is coming up, as is the Chautauqua Festival of Art in Madison. The festivals will take place September 6 and September 27 - 28, respectively. Of the festivals, 4th Street is the youngest and Penrod is the oldest; it will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year.

The Festival started in 1977 by local artists Carolyn Mullet and Marcia Cmack, who wanted to represent the high volume of local artists. An interest meeting was held, and 55 exhibitors participated in the first festival.

Today, art from Monroe County is represented next to art from across the country, and visitors from all over Indiana come to the festival, explains Martina. “We are seen as a national festival; we want to attract artists from a variety of locations.”
The festival is held every year on labor day weekend, and as such there is an especially big crowd ready to enjoy it; IU families will be in town helping their students settle in. In 2006, it was estimated that over 25,000 people visited 4th Street Festival over the two day span. The weekend is not for the claustrophobic!

Saturday, at the close of the first day of the festival artists will be hosted at a show dinner held at the Fountain Square Ballroom where the judges’ scores will determine the winners of the show, and prizes and ribbons will be distributed.

Committee members Cappi and Martina are excited about this year’s festival. “I hope the weather cooperates!” laughs Martina.

For more information about this year’s Fourth Street Festival, visit fourthstreet.org or bloomington.in.us/~fourthst

Ready to get drinking?  I’m not going to coddle you and give you advice on what to do to avoid a hangover and where to find the best digestifs downtown, but I’m not going to be the sorority girl hissing in your ear to chug faster, either.  Bring your ID- your legal ID- to be admitted to all of the drinking oases in Bloomington, and as your hand gets stamped or a cocktail napkin gets placed in front of you, keep these things in mind:

Know the drink specials.
Leaving the cash at home and only taking your credit or debit card to the bars has its pros and cons. The good part is not having to do any math when the bartender announces your final tab (which also might be higher than the amount of cash you brought) and there’s no fumbling with bills or wondering where to put the coin change. On the other hand, with credit, when the friendly bartender asks if you’d like to start a tab, and you agree, you can come back at the end of the night wondering exactly how you managed to drink $60.00 worth of liquor! (There is another con for carrying credit-only if your bar of choice, like the Video Saloon on Walnut Street, does not accept credit!)

One way to keep tab-shock down and the balance in your checking account up is to study the menus of your favorite bars to learn their drink specials and stick to them if you plan on a heavy night of drinking. Not surprisingly, the best drink specials are featured during weeknights; Scholar’s Inn Gourmet Café and Wine Bar has their half-price martinis on Thursday nights, Yogi’s has $1.50 Well Drinks (drinks made with house liquors, as opposed to “Top Shelf,” more expensive alcohol) on Wednesdays and microbrews at Nick’s English Hut are $2.75 Monday through Thursday.

Know the special drinks.
Sure, everyone has “their drink” but there comes a time when the vodka and cranberry juices (or Cape Codders, depending on where you’re from) and whiskey and cokes get a little tired week-in week-out. While one bar might make your drink better than another, and knowing that makes your night out that much more enjoyable, once you’ve found a bar you really like, you may want to find out what their signature drink is, if there’s a story behind it and why this bar boasts about it.

Nick’s boasts a few specialty drinks, including “Swimmin’ the Jordan” and “Nick’s Sling” A “sling” is any alcoholic beverage made with lemon juice and sugar (or more commonly sour mix these days) and club soda, garnished with a cherry and an orange. Nick’s Sling is punched up with Galliano ( a sweet, vanilla-flavored liqueur) rum, brandy and fruit juices. If you’re in more of a beer mood, the Irish Lion can serve you a “yard” of it, in a dauntingly tall glass, and Yogi’s has over 40 beers on tap, with a seemingly countless bottled selection as well.

Know your limits.
Everyone has them. “I can only stay out for an hour;” “I can only have one drink;” “I can only spend $20.” As the night wears on, the promises you made to yourself and your friends about where your stopping point was can easily be forgotten in a warm bubbly atmosphere of a bar. In order to minimize next-day regrets, make arrangements before your night out to keep yourself in check: bring only $20 in cash if that’s all you can truly spend. Make arrangements for a late dinner, movie with friends, or a sundae at the Chocolate Moose after your night at the bar. And if you’re a one-drink party-goer but your friends are firing up the second round, ask the bartender for your tab, close it, and sip a coke or water while you’re friends get louder and funnier. Good on you for having limits!
There are other types of limits as well. Remember that you’re the bar guest and the person behind the bar is the bartender. Don’t play “stump the bartender” by ordering relatively unknown drinks, unless they are truly your favorite or you know exactly how to make them. Trying to make the bartender feel like a moron is probably only going to result in less than enthusiastic service and eliminating any chance you might have had for the bartender to do you any kind of favor later on.
At the same time, remember you’re the bar guest. If a bartender is ignoring you, not making drinks properly or is otherwise inefficient and rude, close your tab and leave. A good bartender, even when she’s busy, will at the very least acknowledge you with a nod. If a bartender scoffs when you point out that half your beer is foamy head, or a cosmopolitan is not supposed to have club soda in it, it could be portentous of a sub-par night out. Thankfully, when researching this article, I didn’t run across too many bartenders like this!

Know what you want.
If you love going out for drinks, ultimately, you’re going to find your favorite bar and make it your own. Whether you’re at the cozy hipster favorite Video Saloon (just “The Vid” to frequenters) or loud and trendy Kilory’s Sports Bar (again, just “Sport’s” to those in the know) you’re adding to the atmosphere just as much as you’re soaking it in. I always the most relaxed and having the most fun at the smaller and quieter bar near the dining section at Yogi’s. You might know someone who swears by the genuine atmosphere and live music at Player’s Pub. While bar-hopping sounds like instant fun and debauchery, your attitude, your expectations and your fellow hoppers will have more to do with a memorable (well…at least enjoyable) night.

Fifteen years later, I’m living with a painting MFA. When he comes back from his studio at night, I’ll often comment that he smells like art class, and lately, visions of macaroni sculptures past have been so heavy on my mind-I can practically taste the glue again (yes, I was that kid in art class).

My reminiscing comes at a perfect time; as luck would have it, March happens to be National Youth Art Month (YAM). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for taking ordinary months out of the year and making them Extraordinary Months Geared to Bettering Society, but I had really never head of this one.

Now in its 47th year, however, the initiative to recognize the importance of Art Education was started in1961 by the Art & Creative Materials Institute, inc(ACMI), a company dedicated to appraising safety in art materials. ACMI worked together with the NAEA: the National Art Education Association, to celebrate YAM on a national level. (Enough acronyms for you?)

YAM’s objectives are to foster awareness in local school communities of the importance and necessity of Art Education (art is to be looked on as a subject right up there with Reading, Writing and ‘Rithmetic) while spotlighting and celebrating students’ and Art Educators’ creativity in the classroom. To get a local perspective on the importance of art, I decided it would be best to try to poke around an art class in Bloomington.

“Students benefit in many ways from art in the classroom,” says Amy Lifton, a head elementary teacher at Bloomington Montessori School. “It gives them a way to express themselves that is different from the logical, mathematical and linguistic modalities that much schoolwork involves.” Indeed, the misconception YAM hopes to correct is Art Education being a “fringe” program, and one of the first areas to be scaled back in some schools adjusting their budgets. From the YAM page at the ACMI site, it is explained “Art education develops self-esteem and self expression, as well as appreciation for the work of others. It also develops critical thinking skills that will be important as children continue their education and as they enter the working world.” In preschool and Kindergarten especially, Art Education is useful in honing fine motor skills.

This winter, Lifton’s students collaborated on creating a mosaic-topped table for a school fundraiser, and participated in a bake and craft sale to sponsor a family during the winter holidays.

Upon entering Lifton’s lower elementary classroom, her students are busy creating masterpieces using three dimensional foundations. Amid their construction paper sculptures and mosaics, the young artists emphatically answer “YES!!!” in unison when asked if they like art. “I like all the different ways you can do art,” says Sara. “It’s fun to make the art you learn in class at home, too.”

On this visit, students A’ine, Nidhi and Margaret work on an abstract piece (“shapes and colors all over” as Margaret explained) with lots of colors and swirls.

“Let’s make it about dramatic feelings…ha ha!” says A’ine.

YAM promoters urge community members to celebrate Art Education by donating art supplies to schools, attending student art shows, or simply praising and encouraging schoolchildren in their artistic endeavors. For me, National Youth Art Month is also spent thumbing through paint splattered, papier mache swathed memories of art classes long gone, with half a mind to break down and make another macaroni tie for dad. Though this time, I think I’ll skip eating the glue.

Special thanks to the lower elementary class at Bloomington Montessori for their input about art education. Be sure to check IU and Bloomington event calendars to attend one of several art shows and YAM celebrations!