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Profiles 25 results
Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, moved to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. Pictured here, Medina sits at his desk at the Indiana Geological and Water Survey. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

Big Mike’s B-town: Cristian Medina, Scientist, Poet, Chess Leader
Michael G. Glab
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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True crime writer Sarah Kolodziej has been hooked on stories of crime, murder, and suicide since she was five years old. While a case anywhere might grab her eye, most of the ones she writes about on her "Crime Spotlight" blog and Instagram account have ties to Bloomington and Indiana — especially cold cases and unsolved crimes. | Courtesy photo

‘Crime Spotlight’ Writer Does Justice to True Crime Stories
Jonah Chester
True crime writer Sarah Kolodziej has been hooked on stories of crime, murder, and suicide since she was five years old. While a case anywhere might grab her eye, most of the ones she writes about on her "Crime Spotlight" blog and Instagram account have ties to Bloomington and Indiana — especially cold cases and unsolved crimes. Writer Jonah Chester investigates. Click here to read the full story.
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Hoagy Carmichael holds son Hoagy Bix in the early 1940s. More recently, Hoagy Bix was in town for IU Theatre’s production of "Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Musical Journey," and 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. | HC Series 3, Box 3, item 33. Hoagy Carmichael Collection, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University

Big Mike’s B-town: Hoagy Bix Carmichael
Michael G. Glab
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.
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Despite living through years of hardship under the French, the Americans and their Vietnamese allies, and, more recently, conflicts with China, a vendor in a market in the coastal city of Hoi An has a ready smile for customers. She wears the nón lá — a conical hat made of palm leaf and worn by Vietnamese of all ages and both genders. | © Steve Raymer / National Geographic Creative

Local Photographer’s Career Spans the Globe in Stories and Photos
Claude Cookman
Writer Claude Cookman sits down with photographer Steve Raymer to discuss Raymer's new book, Somewhere West of Lonely: My Life in Pictures. Cookman says Raymer shows how photojournalism is “the essential eyes for citizens in democratic societies to understand an increasingly complex world.” Raymer, an IU emeritus professor, was a veteran National Geographic photographer in the “golden age” of magazine photojournalism. Click here to read the full story and see many of Raymer's photos.
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Members of the Blockhouse Bar Call & Response House Band before a show. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

‘Wednesday Is Jazz Night’ — A Conversation with Drummer Ben Lumsdaine
Jim Manion, Chaz Mottinger
With Bloomington’s jazz pedigree, it’s fitting that one of the hottest acts in town is a jazz band. On Wednesday nights at Blockhouse Bar, the Call & Response House Band features local and national jazz artists. Jim Manion, music director at WFHB, talked with C&R leader and drummer Ben Lumsdaine about the weekly jazz series. Click here to read the full story.
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Creating a community of misfits isn’t what music entertainer 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 by night. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Darran Mosley, Misfit
Michael G. Glab
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.
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Ann Barlow stands on the porch of her house in Needmore, an intentional community in Brown County, in May 2017. Known in the 1960s and ’70s as communes, places like May Creek and Needmore have had to “bend with the times” to survive, says writer John Mikulenka. And now, as the founding members continue to age, their biggest concern might be finding and keeping the next generation of community members. | Courtesy photo

Intentional Communities Must ‘Bend with the Times’
John Mikulenka
Southern Indiana has a long tradition of utopian communities, also known as communes. A few of the ones formed in the 1960s and ’70s — places like May Creek Farm and Needmore — have had to “bend with the times” to survive, says writer John Mikulenka in this detailed and expansive feature. But as the founding members age, he asks, who will take their place? Click here to read the full story.
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David Brent Johnson works in the sound booth at WFIU. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: David Brent Johnson, Jazz Expert
Michael G. Glab
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.
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A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey (pictured here on the east side of the downtown Square) to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character. | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: Derek Richey, House Hugger
Michael G. Glab
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.
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Jean Magrane (left), who became Bloomington's first woman firefighter in 1987, with Greg Lucas at the “Jiffy Treat training day” in 2006. The fire department is often allowed to use condemned buildings for training purposes before the buildings are destroyed, such as the old Jiffy Treat on Kirkwood Avenue. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Jean Magrane, Firefighter
Michael G. Glab
After Jean Magrane became the city’s first female firefighter in 1987, it took years for most of her male colleagues to accept her as an equal. But she persevered because she valued the work more than any other job she’d had. Writer Michael G. Glab tells the story of this barrier-breaking firefighter. Click here to read the full story
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William Morris, the attorney, radio DJ, and aspiring Episcopal deacon, says the foundation of all his work is teaching. Even on his radio show, "The Soul Kitchen," he says, "I'm teaching people different kinds of music." | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: William Morris, ‘Always Teaching’
Michael G. Glab
William Morris, the attorney, radio DJ, and aspiring Episcopal deacon, says the foundation of all his work is teaching. Even on his radio show, The Soul Kitchen, “I’m teaching people different kinds of music,” he says. Michael G. Glab writes about Morris’s rich and varied life in his column, Big Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.
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3 Soap Guys Outwit National Brands Online [video]
Seth Teeters
When starting their business, Bloomington’s Soapy Soap guys created the “volcano method” of making soap. Four years later, they realized that same method would allow people to create their own customized soap — a process not offered by any other soap maker, not even national brands. Seth Teeters interviewed the soap founders in this video.
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