Monday, December 28, 2009

Goodbye 2009, hello 2010

There’s no way around it: 2009 was a rough year. But now that it’s nearly over, and a fresh calendar sits on my desk, it’s time to look forward to the future, the new year, as an exciting 365-day package of possibilities.

Looking back
Early in 2009, here at the office we lost a dear longtime coworker and friend, Kurt Van der Dussen (whose last touching and telling entry can be found here), as well as a freelance writer, Peter Noble-Kuchera, within the same week. PNK’s movie reviews could be heard on WFIU and read in the H-T. He split his work-time between those essays and his day job, raising funds for WTIU. (He once told me he actually slept underneath his desk one busy weekend.) We received many comments on his loved film column, “The Glowing Screen,” and most of them positive.
The biggest national story had to have been the string of celebrity deaths in what would have been a slow week in June: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and of course, Michael Jackson. Tributes and tweets sprang up faster and bigger than the number of times his “Thriller” tracks spun on stereos in the ’80s. Other buzz generated from reality-meets-reality-tv scandals.

Other national notables that left this world include John Updike, Billy Powell (of Lynyrd Skynyrd), Will Rogers, Dave Arneson (founder of D&D), Dom DeLuise, Jay Bennett (ex-Wilco), Koko Taylor, David Carradine, Walter Cronkite, Les Paul, Don Hewitt (“60 Minutes”), Patrick Swayze, Mary Travers (Peter, Paul and Mary), Ken Ober (MTV’s “Remote Control”) and Brittany Murphy.
In local news, later in the year, we lost a very special jazz musician, bandleader county council member, Al Cobine, and a major concert hall, the Little Nashville Opry, burned down. The video store Cinemat closed, and later the space was reborn as a full music venue and bar, the Bishop. Controversy spread in the Bloomington arts community, as arts groups came at odds with financial changes such as the Waldron’s rental hikes and canceled programs.

On a less heavier note, the 30th anniversary of “Breaking Away” was commemorated with a bike tour and special screening. Little 500 headliners rolled into town: Flight of the Conchords, Ludacris, Soulja Boy. Comedian/star Robin Williams performed in the fall to near-sold-out crowd at the IU Auditorium at a show postponed from the spring when he had heart surgery. Other famous performers that visited Bloomington were folk icons (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan), punk royalty (Tommy Ramone), Latin legends (Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys), Motown masters (The Temptations), bluegrass beauties (Sara Watkins), R&B crooners (Aaron Neville), rockin’ singer-songwriters (Lucinda Williams) and even a theater legend (Stephen Sondheim). Taking acoustic turns were performances by Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and Over the Rhine.

Comedy characters Doug Benson, Arj Barker, Maria Bamford, Tim Wilson, Brian Posehn, Josh Blue, Kristin Key, and dozens of stars and wannabes (the first-ever comedy festival/competition) rolled through town, with the Funny Bone packing in a major contender nearly every week and Comedy Caravan holding down the fort at Bear’s.
The “Chickens (came) Home to Roost” (former Screaming Gypsy Bandits members) mid-year. Museums went on a summer scavenger hunt; galleries again walked through art. Cardinal Stage climbed ev’ry mountain, including a holiday round of “The Sound of Music.”
Spirit of ‘68 Promotions brought in quite a roster of major indie acts, from Grizzly Bear to Elvis Perkins in Dearland. Dunn Meadow had its re-greening, following 1000s of peoples’ foot traffic for the Victoria’s Secret concert by Girl Talk and Cobra Starship. The Lotus festival had another successful year. Hoosier rock star John Mellencamp had an event-full ‘09, from the inauguration concert to Pete Seeger birthday bash to Farm Aid and his own summer tour and live album.

Several honors came to Hoosiers. “Musical America” dubbed Joshua Bell the instrumentalist of the year. IU-related musicians receiving awards included soprano Angela Brown, pianist Menahem Pressler, violinist Stanley Ritchie, cellist Janos Starker, ballerina Violette Verdy and soprano Camilla Williams. The Singing Hoosiers sang at the Indiana Inaugural Ball following President Obama’s inauguration. The Hoosier Youth Philharmonic went to France for D-Day anniversary concerts. IU students Daniel Stein (on flute) and Dash Nesbitt (viola) took part in the first-ever YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The IU-run Web site GameZombie.tv again got a Webby nod. Two local blues acts — Mark Galup and Nine Below Zero — took regional blues challenge titles. And “D Tour” made its national TV debut on PBS’ “Point of View” show.

Looking forward
Now, let’s see what 2010 holds for us. You can kick it off Thursday with any number of local New Year’s Eve parties. If you choose to partake in libations, city groups are having free cab rides that night, so party responsibly. In Sunday’s paper, we’ll have a sampling of what’s to come as far as live events in early ‘10. There’s already much to look forward to.

• posted by Kristina   |   filed under general   |  
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