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Michael G. Glab

Michael G. Glab

Michael G. Glab has been an independent writer since 1983 when he wrote his first article for the Chicago Reader about professional wrestlers. His in-depth personality profiles became a staple in the Reader over the next two decades. Today, he hosts a WFHB radio interview feature called “Big Talk” and is the brain behind the blog, The Electron Pencil. WFIU’s David Brent Johnson has described Big Mike as “a hip town crier” who writes “in a colorful, intelligent working class vernacular.”

Posts by this contributor 29 results

How Healthy Is Lake Monroe — and How Long Will It Survive? Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate

“Lake Monroe is a reservoir, and all reservoirs eventually fill up,” says Michelle Cohen, executive director of Lake Monroe Water Fund. But, she adds, those who rely on the lake for drinking water, recreation, and other uses have the power to extend its life as long as possible. Writer Michael G. Glab takes a deep dive into the health of Lake Monroe. Click here for his report for Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate.

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Hoosier High School Mascots Tell the Stories of Our State

As Indiana high schools enter basketball tourney season, writer Michael G. Glab looks at some of the unusual and interesting nicknames and mascots teams have had over the years, as told in the book Hoosiers All by Emerson Houck. From Aces to Zebras, Glab writes, these nicknames tell the stories of this “high school hoops mad” Hoosier state. Click here to read the article.

Big Mike’s B-town: Adam Nahas, Artist’s Artist

The concept of Artisan Alley — the collective art space, studio, workshop, computer lab, gallery, and other projects — began in Adam Nahas’s basement more than a decade ago. But the path from home workshop to one of Bloomington’s largest art collectives was not a straight line. Writer Michael G. Glab maps out Nahas’s journey. Click here for the story.

Big Mike’s B-town: Zaineb Istrabadi, Baghdadi Hoosier

Zaineb Istrabadi calls herself “a Baghdadi Hoosier.” Writer Michael G. Glab calls her the apotheosis of a Midwesterner in his profile of the longtime senior lecturer in IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. He also calls her “a woman of the world” and a member of one of Bloomington’s most storied families. Click here to read the full story.

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Big Mike’s B-town: Vauhxx Booker, ‘Fortune Favors the Bold’

“Everything inside me — starting with my name, Vauhxx — spoke to me and said I had to speak up,” says Vauhxx Booker, spokesperson for Bloomington’s Black Lives Matter. He also spoke with writer Michael G. Glab about his family’s deep-rooted American history, his shy childhood, and his potential plans for public office in Bloomington. Click here to read the full story.

Big Mike’s B-town: Cohousing Project with Marion Sinclair and Loren Wood

The term “building community” is rarely taken literally, but a fledgling project in town is doing just that. The Bloomington Cohousing Project is planning a collaborative housing community on the south side of Bloomington, where homeowners will live in individual houses but share other common amenities. Writer Michael Glab talks to co-founder Marion Sinclair and builder Loren Wood in his latest Big Mike's B-town. Click here to read the full story.

Big Mike’s B-town: Cristian Medina, Scientist, Poet, Chess Leader

Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, has found plenty to keep him busy since moving to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. LP columnist Michael G. Glab talks to Medina about his hometown — bordered by ocean, mountains, and desert — geology and climate change, his work founding Cardboard House Press, and more in the latest Big-Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.

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Big Mike’s B-town: Hoagy Bix Carmichael

While Hoagy Bix Carmichael was in town for IU Theatre’s production of Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Musical Journey, he talked with writer Michael G. Glab about growing up in Hollywood, his famous namesakes (Hoagy and Bix), and the musical that is premiering in Bloomington. They even squeezed in some talk about fly-fishing. Click here to read the full story.

Big Mike’s B-town: Darran Mosley, Misfit

Creating a community of misfits isn’t what Darran Mosley intended or expected. After growing up in a “super-rough” neighborhood in Indianapolis, then working in computer systems in Chicago, he landed in Bloomington, where he works in IT by day and in music entertainment by night. Here, Michael G. Glab profiles this karaoke host, DJ, and vocalist. Click here to read the full story.

Big Mike’s B-town: David Brent Johnson, Jazz Expert

David Brent Johnson’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz seems to have come from a lifetime of devotion to the music. But WFIU’s jazz director didn’t “see the light” until his 20s — while drinking coffee in a Kirkwood cafe. Michael G. Glab gets the story of this Bloomington legend in Big Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.

Big Mike’s B-town: Derek Richey, House Hugger

A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character, because “that’s why people want to live in Bloomington,” he says in this profile by Michael G. Glab. Click here to read the full story.