We hope you enjoy your stay here.

It just so happens that the weekend before classes features a horror-ific festival in town, so we took this theme and ran with it. We don’t know what you did last summer, and we’re not saying you’re “Touristas,” but we did want to give you some tips and tricks as you settle into your new home.

There’s lots of folks who’ve made a name for themselves from around here, and local and visiting acts and artists, as well. So before that first syllabus hits your desk, sit back and enjoy this freak-filled ride. (We spare you the gory details.)

Take it from us that a little wisdom will help you from being a victim of debt, the Freshman 15 or time going by too quickly.

We’ve been there — and wish we’d known some of these ahead of time, ourselves. (YouTube’d be out of business, though.)

Let us know what you think, too. We need good braaaiiiins!

It’s 2 p.m. You didn’t eat breakfast or lunch (in fact, you just got up), and your stomach is telling you it’s time to eat NOW or you’ll be joining the ranks of the undead roaming the halls at IU. Here are a few options:

• Bar food: If you’re up for stuffed breadsticks, quesadillas or chicken fingers and fries, look no further than Kilroy’s on Kirkwood. Nick’s English Hut offers a classic IU experience with tasty — and locally grown — food, and there’s always Yogi’s for a fun place to hang out with friends and have a few beers. And don’t forget Crazy Horse and the Irish Lion. All these places check IDs, of course.

• Ethnic food: Longing for a taste of home or just want to experience something different? You can’t go wrong with anything on restaurant row along Fourth Street — Siam House for Thai food, for example — and there are plenty of other ethnic restaurants around town. A few of MegaScene’s favorites include Turkuaz Cafe, Snow Lion, Samira, Shanti, MAC Grill and Bombay House.

• Breakfast: The local fave seems to be Village Deli, but if the line’s too long, go off the beaten track a bit. Try the Runcible Spoon, the Uptown Cafe or Cafe Django. Or if you’re in the mood for homemade French toast covered with fruit, granola and maple syrup, try Neannie’s.

• Organic/local: If you want to know where your food’s coming from, shop local. Local cooperative grocery Bloomingfoods has three locations — the east side, downtown on Seventh Street and a smaller storefront, the original location, just off Kirkwood. And there’s plenty of other local fare: Try Soma for coffee, Laughing Planet for yummy burritos and Roots for vegetarian/vegan options.

• On campus: You can purchase meal points that can be used at 20 on-campus locations, including dining areas in residence halls, kiosks at various locations or other options. To find out more about meal points and where you can use them, see www.rps.indiana.edu/mealplans.cfml?aud=adm.

• Order it: And finally, if you don’t feel like going out (after all, the zombies might get you), order in. There’s always pizza or sandwiches. And Straight 2 Your Door, a delivery service for local restaurants, posts menus for several restaurants on its Web site at www.s2yd.com. The choices include Mexican, sushi and wings. And there’s also bwtownmenus.com, which allows you to order online from a variety of local restaurants.

A sharrow.

There are several alternatives to autos in town:

By bike

Lots of Bloomingtonians ride bicycles, for recreation or daily travel. Keep these basic rules in mind: City code says that if you’re riding on public sidewalks, you must yield to those on foot. Don’t run the red lights or stop signs, and going down a road the wrong way is a bad idea. And wear a helmet-your head will thank you later if you ever take a spill.

Your bike must have a bell or other noisemaker to let people know you’re there-no sirens or whistles, though. If you ride at night, lights must be in the front (white) and back (red). Bike shops can help you with the nitty-gritty details.

See that sharrow?

The city of Bloomington has installed new road markings, called “sharrows,” short for “share-the-road arrows.” It’s a bicycle symbol with two arrows, pointing in the direction of travel. You’ll see them on the pavement on College Avenue, from 11th to Fourth streets, and on Walnut Street from Fourth to Seventh streets.

Sharrows are typically used where a bike lane cannot be installed because of road width limitations. The new road markings provide guidance to cyclists and motorists, indicating that cyclists should occupy the central portion of the right travel lane. And hopefully they will keep a cyclist from colliding with an open car door and becoming a zombie.

By foot

If you join the pedestrian crowd, beware of shin splints and foot sores. Comfortable shoes and a steady pace should do the trick. Cross at intersections and crosswalks and obey the crosswalk “walk” or “don’t walk” signals-even when there’s no traffic (it’s city code). On campus you can cross a roadway in mid-block, as long as you yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic. Be very careful on Jordan.

By bus

The city and campus bus systems go all around town and across campus. There’s lots of stops and map guides to help you get around.

Call for help

You’ve seen the cell phone movies. Here are some numbers to program in to your mobile for times of need, or at least to post on your fridge.

• Safety first - For all emergencies at any location: Dial 911. For non-emergencies: Bloomington Police Department, 339-4477; IU Police Department, 855-4111; Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, 349-2780

• Get your bearings - Bloomington Map Gallery, www.bloomington.in.gov/maps; Visitor’s Center, 116 E. Kirkwood Ave., 334-8900, www.downtownbloomington.com

• Speak up - City government staff directory: www.bloomington.in.gov/departments.php

• Clean act - Bloomington Sanitation Department, 349-3443 (6:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. weekdays), www.bloomington.in.gov/sanitation

• Get on the bus - Bloomington Transit, 336-RIDE; www.bloomingtontransit.com

• Get a guard dog - Bloomington Animal Shelter, 349-3492, http://bloomington.in.gov/animalshelter

• Work on good karma - Bloomington Volunteer Network, 349-3433, www.bloomington.in.gov/volunteer

• Park it - Parking Enforcement, 349-3436, www.bloomington.in.gov/parking

• Get an ID - driver’s license branches: Bloomington, 1612 S. Liberty Drive, Suite A, 336-3018; Ellettsville, 4629 West Richland Plaza, 876—1244.

• Quick study - Monroe County Public Libraries, 349-3050, www.monroe.lib.in.us

• Be with nature - City Parks and Recreation 349-3700, www.bloomington.in.gov/parks

The streets

Quick hint: Don’t wander aimlessly; if you ever have to flock to the streets (or if you’re feeling particularly revolutionary, you want to man the barricades), here are some roads/routes to keep in mind:

• B-town’s two main north-south arteries, College Avenue and Walnut Street, one way through downtown. (To go south on Walnut, take College south until it merges into Walnut.)

• The section of Kirkwood close to campus is two-way and dead ends at the Sample Gates. The majority of cross streets are one way (Lincoln, Washington and so on).

• One of the quirkiest routes through town is Third Street, the main thoroughfare between campus, the bypass (which isn’t really one) and the College Mall. Running east-west (as all the numbered streets do), it leads to any number of highways, and thus becomes bumper to bumper at busy points in the year. Think football games. Near the mall, it’s four lanes; near campus, it becomes two, and then past Forrest Quad it’s one-way, up until Indiana Avenue, when it becomes two-way, four lanes again. It’s counterpart is Atwater, which runs parallel from campus toward the mall.

• Keep a lookout for roundabouts around town, giant circles which function like an intersection, yielding right of way.

• Streets change names, too. A lot. One example: from the College Mall Road area, Rogers Road becomes Winslow Road, then Country Club Drive then Tapp Road.

• On the east side, Smith is a road, then an avenue (near campus), then a pike (on the west side).

Think twice about signing up for that free pizza or T-shirt on campus. It could cost you.

Sure, it seems harmless — take a clipboard and five minutes and fill out a credit card application. And in return, you get a new credit card and some swag. The hidden cost? You’re left with a tempting credit card — free money! — and it could ruin your credit. And trust me, a lame white T or a key chain isn’t worth it. For most college students, it’s tough to navigate the financial maze — especially those who for the first time have a credit card or checking account. But the folks at American Bankers Association Education Foundation prepared a road map.

So trust the professionals and follow their 10 tips to make the journey easier — and with room to buy your own pizza.

• 1. Create a budget. To be fiscally fit you need to know how much goes in and out of your account. Keep monthly records of your spending and living expenses.

• 2. Get organized. Keep ATM transaction receipts, bills, purchases and tax records organized together in labeled files. This will help you stay on track with your budget and make it easier when it’s time to pay bills.

• 3. Buy used books. Used books are usually in good condition and cost about half the price of new books.

• 4. Keep the car home. Parking, insurance and theft are additional worries that most college students could live without. More than likely, everything you need is within walking distance.

• 5. Shop around. Compare prices and be selective to get the best prices, services, convenient locations and lowest fees for credit cards and bank accounts.

• 6. Get smart about credit. Credit cards are not magic money; they’re a loan with an obligation to repay. Don’t spend more than you can afford to pay back.

• 7. Live within your means. Don’t buy what you can’t afford.

• 8. Smart spending equals savings. Find inexpensive ways to entertain yourself. Visit museums, parks or read at the coffeehouse, check out sales racks, consignment shops, cut coupons or search the Internet. A few local store staples: Goodwill, Salvation Army and Plato’s Closet.

• 9. Protect yourself. Don’t be a victim of fraud or identity theft. Guard your credit card, PIN and account numbers. Buy a shredder so you can dispose of statements, receipts and bills properly.

• 10. Pay attention. Read your bills and statements each month. This helps you keep track of your spending, alerts you to fraud and any mistakes that may occur on your account.

Indiana is one of many places that claim the proverb, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” It’s an exaggeration, to be sure, but not by much around here.

Here are some tips from around the newsroom on how to survive everything from temperature changes to tornadoes:

• Buy a collapsible umbrella and carry it with you, even if there’s not a cloud in the sky.

• Beat the heat with a water bottle, portable fan and passing time in the AC-ed Union at the center of campus.

• Dress in layers or carry a jacket with you. The temperature when you walk out the door is not likely to be the same even two or three hours later.

• It feels a long way off, but in the winter, wear shoes with lots of tread on them. Otherwise, you are almost guaranteed to fall on the ice. If you have a car, wait until snow-covered roads have been treated with sand or salt to melt the ice. More at www.weather.com/activities/driving/drivingsafety/drivingsafetytips.

• Tornado sirens are tested on the first Friday of the month. If you hear them and it’s not the first Friday of the month, get under cover as quickly as possible. You can also get text message weather alerts from HeraldTimesOnline.com. FYI, a tornado watch means conditions are likely to produce a funnel cloud. A tornado warning means one has been spotted in the area. If there’s no basement, head to a bathroom or interior room with no windows. More tips: www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/safety.html.

Quick pop question — what’s the easiest way to get noticed by the local police?

A. Confusing a police cruiser for taxi cab

B. Throwing rocks

C. Singing loudly off-key with a group of friends

D. Urinating in public

E. Doing any of the above while intoxicated

Ask any police officer whose ever worked the night shift, and they’ll tell you the answer is E.

Indiana University Police Capt. Jerry Minger said zero tolerance as far as alcohol consumption is a very lofty goal in a college environment, so students need to make responsible decisions.

“People who get arrested are often waving a red flag. ‘Here I am. I’m doing something illegal,’” Minger said.

Although IU had more females (19,821) than males (18,426) enrolled last fall, a higher number of males were arrested by IU police.

IU officers arrested 806 students last year from Aug. 15, 2006 to Aug. 1, ’07, with male students getting arrested three times as likely as female students.

And those statistics are just for arrests by IUPD officers. Other law enforcement departments — Indiana State Police, Bloomington Police and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office — don’t offer such breakdowns.

Bloomington Police Capt. Joe Qualters said he remembers watching a couple of guys who walked into a downtown bank, grabbed a stack of deposit slips and threw them in the air.

“They thought it was the funniest thing ever until they saw the police car, and they had to pick up every piece of paper,” Qualters said.

Minger said to avoid meeting your local law enforcement officers, do your best to stay within the confines of the law and at the very least don’t do things to draw attention to yourself.

“College is a learning experience, and we become the professor and try to instruct them on how to abide by the law,” Minger said.

Students should also learn to keep the music down. There are a number of off-campus homes that are situated in neighborhoods with residents who don’t appreciate loud rap music at 3 a.m.

“There are people that have to work the next day, and they would like to be able to sleep,” Qualters said.

Bus etiquette • Please wait until departing passengers are off the bus before you get on. • Have exact fare or your pass ready. Drivers do not carry change. • Save front seats for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. • As the bus nears the location where you want to get off, pull the cord above the windows or press the yellow strip between the windows, and a bell will alert the driver to stop the bus. • Don’t eat, drink or use offensive behavior or language on the bus. • Do not take animals onto buses (except service or guide animals). • Do not carry oversize objects that cannot be properly secured. • Radios or other audio players can only be used with earphones.

If you’re new to town, it won’t be long before you find out that Bloomington is a great place to experience the arts. Well, even some city buses feature art work on the sides, back or inside the vehicles.

But if you’re without a car — or if you’ve decided to leave the car behind to help the environment — you probably want to know more about where buses go. Here’s a little breakdown.

Bloomington Transit has 13 routes that go just about everywhere. Two are favorites for IU students:

The Campus Shuttle is what you’ll want if you live in Smallwood Plaza, the 10th and College Apartments, or the Lofts, as well as off-campus apartment complexes including Fountain Park, all three Woodbridge apartments, the Barrington and Crest apartments, Meadow Park, Yorktown, Bradford Place, Knightridge and Colonial Crest. It goes to the 10th Street area of campus as well as the HPER building and the Union.

The C Route is a must for students living in Campus Corner, Covenanter Gardens, the Grove at Latimer, the Woods at Latimer, the Fields, Hunter Ridge, Park Doral, Tulip Tree and Eigenmann Hall. It goes to the IU Library, Kelley School of Business, Jacobs School of Music, Jordan Hall, Memorial Hall, the Sample Gates and most areas of campus on or south of 10th Street.

If you’re living out in the boonies, ask about Rural Transit.

Excited about night life? Buses can provide a way to get home safely: Both the Campus Shuttle and the C Route run until shortly after midnight. (After that, call a cab or stop by the cab stand on Sixth Street just west of the courthouse square.)

The best part? IU students ride buses free when they present valid student identification cards.

IU faculty and staff also ride free upon presentation of a photo bus pass, which can be obtained online at www.iubus.indiana.edu/campus_bus/free_buspass.html.

If you’ve forgotten your ID or pass, the ride will cost 75 cents.

Want to learn more? Visit www.bloomingtontransit.com, or call 336-RIDE for the location of the bus stop nearest to you.

Erick Headley works on a project for his computer class at the Information Commons at IU’s Wells Library. Chris Howell | Herald-Times

So you think a university library is a dark, dingy vault filled with thousands of books that no one reads? Think again.

The hub of IU’s Herman B Wells Library is the Information Commons, a well-lit, high-tech center packed with students checking e-mail, surfing the Web and working on class projects.

It features:

• 350 computer workstations,

• group stations configured for two to five students to work together,

• a multimedia center with software to create and edit media presentations,

• laptops that students can check out, and

• computer consultants to answer questions 24-7.

Information Commons 1, on the main floor of the library’s west tower, was an immediate hit when it opened in 2003. Two years later, the library added Information Commons 2 on the second floor, a space devoted to quiet study where cell phones are turned off and the only sound is the clacking of keyboards.

“Students work in different ways,” said IU Libraries spokesman Eric Bartheld. “Sometimes they need to work in groups and sometimes they need a quiet place to study.”

This fall, the technological amenities of the library are being augmented by a new partnership between IU and ChaCha Search, a Carmel-based Internet company that employs human “guides” to facilitate efficient and focused searching for information.

IU Libraries staff will serve as online guides for ChaCha-style searches of the university computer networks. Bartheld said a big advantage is that the searches can provide students and faculty access to the so-called invisible Internet, licensed databases and online collections not available to the general public.

There actually are 18 libraries at IU Bloomington, ranging from academic department libraries to the Kinsey Library of sex-research materials to the Lilly Library of priceless rare books and documents.

And there are books. As one of the 15 largest research libraries in the U.S., the IU Libraries include more than 6.3 million bound volumes in 70 languages, along with hundreds of thousands of maps, sound recordings, films and videos.

Sample Gates

Picking the top 10 campus landmarks at Indiana University is kind of like picking your 10 favorite songs, your 10 favorite cheeses, your 10 favorite ... Children?

The point is, with so many great things to choose from, it’s tough to narrow down a list of the best places on campus.

Here’s our list, composed and chosen solely by me.

• 1. The Sample Gates. See any postcard, shot glass or poster of IU (and even today’s Scene cover), and there’s a good sporting chance that the big limestone gates are on them. Built in 1987, the gates serve as the unofficial entryway into campus. They were a gift from Edson Sample, and hold the official record at IU for “Most Pictures Taken In Front Of.” Avoid them like the plague on graduation weekends.

• 2. Assembly Hall. Big, white and mammoth. No, it’s not Larry Bird. IU’s famed basketball arena was given a fresh coat of paint a few years ago and now has a state-of-the-art scoreboard that dangles above center-court. It’s the home of several national championship men’s basketball teams, and a women’s program that’s on the rise. Oh yeah, and Bobby Knight threw his tantrums — and even a chair­ — on these hallowed floorboards. Even if you’re not a sports fan, you owe it to yourself to see a game here. (You’d better do that soon. Plans are for it to be replaced by a new basketball palace — eventually.)

• 3. Indiana Memorial Union. One of the biggest student union buildings in the world, the IMU is home to IU’s bookstore, a large cafeteria, a bowling alley and a movie theater that usually shows first-run features for little or no cost. Make your parents take you to brunch at the Tudor Room on a Sunday morning. Just pretend like you forgot to bring your credit card. Trust me, it will work. When referring to this building, call it the “IMU,” but pronounce it like the bird of similar name. Don’t worry about the strange looks.

• 4. Dunn Meadow. Do you like the band Phish? Playing frisbee? Are you currently wearing a seashell necklace? Welcome to Dunn Meadow! It’s the Assembly Hall for the hacky-sack playing type. When the weather’s nice, the vast, open space on the west side of campus is a great place to walk your dog, or lay in the sun. Just watch out for stray frisbees.

• 5. IU Auditorium.Extensively remodeled several years ago, the auditorium hosts national acts ranging from Jeff Foxworthy to Wilco. The acoustics are superb, and you usually get discounted tickets with your student ID.

• 6. Herman B. Wells Library. Located at 10th and Jordan, the library is gigantic. Guys, there’s no better place to meet women on campus than the library if you’re into that “reading” type, whatever that is. I wouldn’t know, because I’m illiterate. It’s also a good place to study.

• 7. Bill Armstrong Stadium.Home of the Little 500. If you’ve never heard of it, go rent “Breaking Away.” The ‘Little 5,’ as it’s known, is the world’s largest intramural sporting event. Sports Illustrated says it’s one of the best sporting events in America. It also has one of the few remaining cinder tracks left in the country. IU’s acclaimed men’s soccer team also plays here. They’re perennial contenders for an NCAA title.

• 8. The Rose Well House. Built in 1908, there’s a longstanding belief that a young woman couldn’t become a “co-ed” until she made out with a guy here at midnight. I’m officially re-writing the rule to say a young IU female student can’t officially become a co-ed until she makes out with me, James Boyd, at midnight (EDITOR’S NOTE: ugghhh!).

• 9. Ballantine Hall. I’ll bet you $50 you’ll have a class here during your four-year academic career. It’s basically the biggest classroom building on campus. Everyone has class at Ballantine Hall. If you don’t, there’s something wrong with you.

• 10. Jacobs School of Music.One of the premier music schools in the world. You can — most times for free — hear world-class music just a few feet away from you. Take Intro to Jazz by David Baker. He’s one of the most renowned jazz musicians and teachers on the planet, he loves to teach, and he can tell you first-hand stories about guys like Miles Davis and J.J. Johnson. When it comes to cats, Baker’s the coolest.

Bill Armstrong Stadium

In this day and age, surviving four years of higher education without access to the Interweb is simply no longer an option. That said, you can only stare at the constricting walls of your dorm room or the cavernous stacks of the literary tomb that is the Herman B Wells Library before you go a little stir crazy. Luckily this is 2007, and you can escape the horrors of campus for the greener Wi-Fi pastures of Bloomington.

Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores offer Wi-Fi as long as you are willing to pony up for their T-mobile and AT&T et al.-provided service. A short walk across the street or the parking lot will take you to Panera, which is like a free Wi-Fi enabled library.

McDonald’s will not only let you purchase all that waist-expanding food, but also Wi-Fi access. Following McDonald’s lead, Starbuck’s, not content with controlling your musical tastes and maintaining your caffeine addiction, offers Wi-Fi access through T-mobile.

If you would like to surf without coughing up any extra cash to do so, downtown Bloomington is wired out the whazoo. If you like caffeine and socializing but don’t like mingling with the East Coast exclusionaries or the “studious” Greek crowd, then Soma is the place to be. Across the street, the Monroe County Public Library offers free Wi-Fi and the chance to mingle with and be propositioned by the less fortunate.

Other eating establishments giving the Internet away include the Bazaar Cafe, Bloomington Bagel Co., Dagwood’s, Turkuaz Cafe, Cafe Ami and Qdoba Mexican Grill. Sometimes, however, food and coffee aren’t enough and you need a little booze with your e-mail checking and, surprisingly, there are multiple options to feed your alcohol-related Internet issues.

Michael’s Uptown Cafe has food, beer, wine, soccer and a wicked fast connection. Kilroy’s, at night the starting point of many a walk of shame, offers Wi-Fi for daytime diners. Remarkably, The Office Lounge, home to karaoke and quality townie interaction on the outskirts of Bloomington, is all wired up.

So grab your laptop and your walking shoes and find a campus escape that best suits you.

The pressure of all that reading, writing and relentlessly trying to find someone else’s bed to sleep in can be a bit overwhelming at times, and sometimes you need a little musical distraction. In the land that bore Diamond Dave and nurtured a young R.O.C.K.er on the prowl, music is plentiful, and finding something to suit your musical tastes is easy if you know where to look.

Starting at the corner of Jordan and Third, we have Bear’s Place, known mostly for Comedy Caravan and karaoke; Wednesday and Friday nights have returned to the bar’s rock glory of old, bringing a steady string of local and international indie rock acts such as Old Time Relijin and Neil Hamburger.

Continuing west, you’ll hit the corner of Kirkwood and Dunn, where we have Uncle Fester’s House of Blooze and The Jungle Room (A). “Punk Rock” Josh Johnson has spent the summer turning it into the go-to venue for local hip-hop and rock acts on the rise such as C-Rayz Walz, Murder by Death and Besnard Lakes.

Across the street is Tracks Records (B),one of three downtown record shops and unofficial outpost of the Bluebird nightclub. Here, you’ll find cold drinks, tickets, an enthusiastic staff and, depending on the time of day, good conversation. Farther up the road is TD’s (C), used record store formerly owned by the late Tom Donahue. It’s the go-to spot for the art-rock lover and connected to Soma coffee shop, which is the designated headquarters of Bloomington’s hipsterati. Coffee, hobnobbing and info on pretty much every show — be it in a club or a basement — can be found here.

Westward momentum takes you to the Buskirk-Chumley (D), which has the means to provide top-tier entertainment such as the occasional Andrew Bird, Terrance Blanchard or Dirty Projectors show but more often than not brings high-priced Duncan Sheik and Cowboy Junkies shows and wonders why seats are empty.

Moving south down Washington will take you to the outskirts of the musical community. On Third and Grant you’ll find Sweet Hickory (E), which is a record-store-cum-community-center-cum-art-gallery-and-venue for the DIY crowd. Punk rock is the music of choice, but it is one of the most inviting environments in town. On the corner of Washington and Third is the double shot of Boxcar Booksand Landlocked Music (F). Boxcar has literature for the underrepresented masses and those dissatisfied with the powers that be.

Landlocked Music has rapidly become a hub for Bloomington’s music scene. Beyond the insanely knowledgeable staff, Landlocked has served as last-minute venue and a meeting place for vinyl junkies, fans of the obscure and more or less every band that matters pop his or her head in at least once a day.

One block up the road is Rhino’s (G),a youth center that serves as an all-ages venue featuring everything from underage metal to the hip-hop of Atmosphere to the politically tinged punk of Against Me to the mind-warping insanity of Melt Banana. Way down Walnut is the Art Hospital, a communal run art space that gives a stage and a blank wall to artists and acts of all kinds. From Pinewood derbies to gallery openings to shows from acts like Dead Meadow and Danielson, the Art Hospital is many things to many people. Near Second and Walnut you’ll find the Player’s Pub (H),home to blues, jazz, original tunes and swingin’ nights with food to boot.

Back around downtown way, The Waldron Arts Center (I) sits on the corner of Walnut and Fourth street. Here you can learn arts and crafts and see an eclectic mix of performers, from local jazz to traveling singer songwriters to indie-rock icon David Bazan. Across the street is the Cinemat (J), a video store that doubles as a burgeoning venue. Here you’ll find acts escaping the cramped quarters of house shows and finding a growing audience in Bloomington’s newest spot.

Moving North on Walnut will take you to the triangle of Plan 9 Video, the Bluebirdand TheVideo Saloon (K). Plan 9 is the video store for cult films and hard-to-find independent film, and the Video Saloon is the favored watering hole of townies, hipsters, grad students and anyone else not looking to grind up on coeds. The Bluebird is inarguably THE club in Bloomington. In the past year alone, it’s stage has been graced by Toots and the Maytals, Damian and Stephen Marley, Method Man and Man Man and in the coming months will see Ween, Nickel Creek and Del tha Funkee Homosapien.

Around the corner is Max’s Place (L), the pizzeria that has emerged as the most eclectic stage in town. W hile the Player’s Pub on South Walnut has cornered the market on blues and singer/songwriters, Max’s is the go-to spot for everything else. Jazz, hip-hop, rock, reggae, bluegrass, country, some weird amalgamation of all of the above — Max’s will have it with a slice and a microbrew to wash it all down.

Last stop is Jake’s Nightclub (M), whose cavernous space is filled with everything from Jim Jones to weekly dance parties. Attempting to return to the club’s historically rich musical past, the venue has been bringing the college crowd kicking and screaming into the live music era.

So grab your wallets, purses and two forms of ID and find the spot that suits you best.

Want to escape from a ghoulish situation? How about a road trip? Or is it just that your parents are planning a visit, and you need a place to go where you all can be entertained and they can pick up the check?

Here are a few options, some of them free or almost free, within reach of Bloomington.

• French Lick/West Baden Springs: Yes, there is a town, a tiny town about 60 miles south of Bloomington, called French Lick. It is connected to an equally small town, called West Baden Springs. French Lick is home to the state’s newest gambling casino, which is adjacent to a giant refurbished century-old hotel that will take your breath away. An aside: Hotel chef Louis Perrin prepared and served the first glass of tomato juice there when he ran out of oranges for juice back in 1917.

And speaking of breathtaking, be sure to take a tour of the luxurious and just-renovated West Baden Springs Hotel and grounds. The hotel is known for its giant free-span atrium dome, once called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

• Yellowwood State Forest: Is camping more your thing? The 23,200-acre Yellowwood State Forest in neighboring Brown County has three lakes, hiking and horse trails and lots of wildlife. There are overnight campsites around the lovely 133-acre Yellowwood Lake, which offers fishing and rowboat rentals. Just show up; reservations are not taken.

• Greene County’s Tulip Viaduct: A viaduct is a giant train trestle, a span of arches built to support a railroad over a valley. The third-largest such structure in the world is located over the Richland Creek Valley in Greene County, west of Bloomington.

In 1906, the Illinois Central Railroad completed the structure, which is supported by 18 different 180-foot-tall towers. The steel and concrete viaduct is 2,295 feet long. Several trains travel the span each day, with most transporting coal to a power plant in Indianapolis.

Trespassing on the viaduct is illegal and also dangerous.

• Story Inn: A great place for dinner, whether you arrive by car or on horseback — there are hitching posts outside for the latter.

The restaurant, which features gourmet locally grown and raised food, is a refurbished general store from another time. A real country store with a 1930s gas pump, not a Cracker Barrel lobby.

The Story Inn, which also has overnight rooms in its bed and breakfast, is located on twisting and narrow Ind. 135 South, about a 20-minute drive from Nashville. The Blue Lady is said to haunt one of the guest rooms.

• Marengo Cave: Want to go underground? Marengo Cave is the place to go. Try the Underground Adventure tour, every Sunday afternoon at 1:30. Call 888-702-2837 to find out more about tours.

The cave reportedly was discovered on Sept. 6, 1883, when a 15-year-old cook at a school overheard boys talking about plans to explore a nearby sinkhole. The girl ran home, got her bother and some candles, and they snuck out of the house to beat the boys there.

They crawled into the sinkhole and found an amazing underground world, with stalagmites, huge flowstone deposits and waterfalls. Soon, the public was taking tours.

Today, the cave offers gemstone mining, walking tours and canoeing on the Blue River, which is above ground nearby.

Jens Lekman

Editor’s note: Dane Coleman is our resident Audibles music columnist, who is a freelance writer and booking agent. Look for more on the music scene throughout these pages.

Welcome back to the quaint little burg that we call Bloomington. We spent the summer figuring out how to amuse ourselves in your absence, and now that you all are back, we can get down to the business of distracting you from your studies. No one really cares what your GPA is, so step out of the library and into a bar or club because a 4.0 and 2.5 earn the same degree, and procrastination is way more fun.

August ends on a good note with the Dirty Projectors at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and Grizzly Bear and Beach House tour mates the Papercuts at Bear’s Place. September vies for your library and football time with a slate of festivals and concerts for all types. The Fourth Street festival puts Bloomington’s artists on display, shutting down Fourth Street for a weekend of food, art and music. This is just a precursor to the Lotus Festival, which brings musicians from across the globe to diversify the mess out of downtown for four gloriously odd days. This year’s lineup features Lotus festival faves Balkan Beat Box, up-and-comers Toubab Crewe and enemy of both spiders and Dennis Hopper, Jeff Daniels. Yes, that Jeff Daniels. He sings. Who knew?

If world music isn’t your bag, the Waldron offers up a double dose of indie-rock goodness with David Bazan and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone followed by Shapes and Sizes and Yeasayer. The Buskirk-Chumley does its best to take your tuition dollars with Squirrel Nut Zipper associate Andrew Bird. For the hip-hop heads, Redman brings his blunted flow straight from Brick City to the Bluebird. Rounding out the musical potpourri of September are Michigan’s Afrobeat torchbearers Nomo, bringing the beat to Uncle Fester’s, and the political punk of Against Me! flies in from my adopted hometown of Gainesville, Fla., and lands on the Rhino’s stage.

October will be a very expensive month with top-notch talent spread all across town. The Waldron has producer cum musician extraordinaire John Vanderslice, while Old Time Relijun returns to the Bear’s Place stage where the memory of their last performance still rolls off the tongues of all who bore witness. The sardonic wit of everyone’s favorite author David Sedaris returns to the IU Auditorium, while the eccentric genius of Ween comes to the Bluebird. Nickel Creek’s farewell tour stops by the Bluebird as well, while over at Uncle Fester’s, Murder by Death takes a break from the road for a homecoming show.

The hip-hop high times and hilarity of Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and Devin the Dude take to the Bluebird Stage, while Jake’s welcomes the melancholy romanticism of Jens Lekman, Sweden’s greatest non-ABBA related export. Musicians and champions of Canada’s poor, Black Mountain, swing by the Bluebird, and Rhino’s hosts a Halloween benefit for Hoosier Hills Food Bank featuring Japanese noise rock legends Melt Banana.

And these are just the things that are written in stone. If even half of the distractions being bantered about actually happen, expect to see a serious decline in GPAs and classroom attendance.

IU Auditorium season for the semester:

• Sept. 14: Dennis Miller

• Oct. 9-10: “Annie”

• Oct. 16: David Sedaris

• Oct. 31: Dennis James hosts Halloween

• Nov. 3: Hilary Hahn

• Nov. 13-14: “Rent”

• Nov. 15: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

• Dec. 5: Chimes of Christmas

David Sedaris

What up, my peeps? I’m here to dish the 411 on... (Hmmm? Oh, all right. It won’t happen again.) I’ve just been instructed not to connect with the next generation by using their lingo. Apparently, it sounds silly. So we’ll start again.

Good day, and welcome to Bloomington, Indiana. While many of you are returning to us, some of you are joining us for the first time, and your first thought after setting up a bank account and locating pizza delivery is “Where can I do some theater in this town?” I’m here to help. There are several groups performing live theater in and around Bloomington, and many are open to new participants.

If you’re an Indiana University student, the logical first step is to check out the IU Department of Theatre and Drama. Roles go almost exclusively to theater students, but they’ve been known to let in community participants. Their season starts Oct. 5 with “Seussical the Musical,” and continues throughout the academic year. Those staying over the summer can keep things going at the Brown County Playhouse. For more information about theater at IU, visit www.indiana.edu/~thtr/index.html.

The community at large offers additional opportunities for actors and tech people. Very popular is the Bloomington Playwrights Project, the home of new plays in town. Their season starts next week with a play called “Cowboyily.” The next casting opportunity will be for November’s show, “Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy,” as well as smaller stage events such as The Playoffs in October. They also have an edgy late-night series of short plays called The Dark Alley. For more info, visit www.newplays.org.

Cardinal Stage Company enters their third year of production in 2007. This professional company is open to union and nonunion talent alike. Auditions have just finished for their production of “Oliver!” but they’ll have more shows coming up, including “O Lovely Glowworm” in February and “Hamlet” in May. More details are available at www.cardinalstage.org.

The Bloomington Area Arts Council, operating out of the John Waldron Arts Center, is the home to a number of theatrical presentations every year. The group has an annual Performance Series, in which the BAAC partners with local producers. In addition to that, theater groups often rent space at the Waldron to present their plays. The weeks ahead will feature an example of each. In September, InterAction Theatre will present Christopher Durang’s “Miss Witherspoon,” while the Performance Series will feature the world premiere of “Mourning Lori,” auditions for which will be held next week. Visit /www.minds-ear.org/lori.htm for details.

Monroe County Civic Theatre has been a local institution for 20 years now. Perhaps the most open and welcoming theater group in town, MCCT typically produces two free Shakespeare plays in Third Street Park every summer, and a variety of comical and dramatic works at different venues throughout the year (including a popular new dinner theater series). MCCT always welcomes new talent, especially ambitious, creative people who want to contribute. Visit www.mcct.org to learn more.

I could go on and on. There are other groups in town presenting their work each year — Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, several local improv groups, student groups organized by Indiana’s Union Board, and some ambitious upstarts doing guerilla theater wherever they can find space. The good news is, if you’ve got the desire, there’s a place for you here. My column appears in The Scene online and every Sunday in the H-T, and I’ll keep you up to date on what’s coming up. For announcements of auditions, you can check each Sunday’s Arts Watch here in the paper. And for general arts information, visit www.bloomingtonarts.info.

Welcome to our town. Your stage is waiting.

Galleries abound in this little town, from downtown art spaces, mainstream and alternative, to campus gems, such as the I.M. Pei-designed IU Art Museum. (He designed the Louvre addition, don’t you know.)

To start, the Alliance of Bloomington Museums includes more than a dozen spaces around town. Ask at the Lilly Library or Mathers Museum (on Indiana Avenue) for more info.

In the heart of campus, the IU Art Museum is home to more than 30,000 objects, from famous paintings to ancient artifacts. Don’t miss the current architectural exhibits, which are up through Sept. 2. Next door, in the fine arts building, you’ll find the SoFA Gallery, where students showcase their strokes of genius.

The Monroe County Historical Society Museum, at 202 E. Sixth St. currently is hosting an exhibit about the Civil War and locals’ participation. Call 332-2517.

The Wylie House Museum at 307 E. Second St., built by Andrew Wylie, IU’s first president, in 1835, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Call 855-6224.

Walk to art spaces around downtown for a bunch of receptions at once during the seasonal Gallery Walks. The next one is Oct. 5 and includes Gallery North on the Square, Prima Gallery, Wandering Turtle Art Gallery and Gifts, Bellevue Gallery, By Hand Gallery, Tutto Bene’s gallery, Buskirk-Chumley Theater’s Textillery Gallery and John Waldron Arts Center; call 334-3100 for more or stop by the Waldron for a brochure.

For the young and the young at heart, trek down to WonderLab at 308 W. Fourth St. to learn all about science. Activities include the bubble stations and live animal demonstrations. Call 337-1337 or see www.wonderlab.org.

DANCE

You can boogie at the various club dances — the industrial/goth Axis of Evil, Eastern European techno mix Peasant Disco, ‘80s throwback Retro Dance Night, Swing and Latin dance parties. Check the calendar to see when these are coming up.

FESTIVALS

Be sure to mark your calendar for this annual festivities:

• The Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts — Labor Day Weekend. www.bloomington.in.us/~fourthst.

• Lotus World Music and Arts Festival — late September. www.lotusfest.org.

• The Bloomington Early Music Festival (BLEMF) — Memorial Day weekend. www.blemf.org.

• Live From Bloomington — spring. www.imu.indiana.edu

• Taste of Bloomington/Arts Fair on the Square — June.

Bloomington’s poetry offerings run the gamut, from longtime groups to contemporary slams. Here’s our local outfits you can expect to hear from in the coming months:

• Bloomington Women’s Writing Center: workshops and readings

• Five Women Poets: annual reading in October

• Free Verse Poets: meetings and annual readings

• IU’s Creative Writing Program and Master of Fine Arts Program: on- and off-campus readings, showcases of local and national poetry

• Matrix: open mic nights, poetry series, periodic poetry slams at Max’s Place, spoken word events and more

• The Runcible Spoon Poetry Series: monthly readings (last Friday), open mic events, poetry slam contests

• WFHB and WFIU: regular poetry broadcasts; keep an ear out for Jenny Kander’s “The Poet’s Weave” at 11:46 a.m. each Sunday on WFIU, as well as Garrison Keillor’s frequently poetry-related “The Writer’s Almanac” at 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday

• Women Writing for (a) Change: workshops and readings

On the dial

Music to set your alarm or car radio to, or stream live online:

FM

• 92.3 WTTS — Classic and current rock (also at 95.9)
• 95.1 Spirit 95 — Contemporary Christian and inspirational (www.spirit95fm.com)
• 96.7 WBWB — B97; Current pop, rock, rap and R&B (www.wbwb.com)
• 97.7 WCLS — Classic hits (www.wttsfm.com)
• 98.1 WFHB — Community radio — news, jazz and more (also at 93.1, www.wfhb.org)
• 99.1 WIUX — Student-run, pop, rock, eclectic mix (www.wiux.org)
• 103.7 WFIU — NPR, news, classical music; university-run (www.indiana.edu/~wfiu)
• 105.1 WHCC — country, IU sports

AM

• 1370 WGCL — Local news, sports, talk

On the pod

IU groups are starting to jump on the podcasting wagon, so be on the lookout for these from such crews as the IU Jacobs School of Music and IU Auditorium. You can hear free daily headline podcasts by the Herald-Times at www.HeraldTimesOnline.com/media. More about this in future editions.

These classrooms are guaranteed to be noisy.

Chances are you’ll enjoy the sounds more than complain, though.

The Jacobs School of Music has been home to any number of music legends, from Al Cobine (who played sax on the “Pink Panther” track, among other things) to Hoagy Carmichael (his songs are jazz standards), and currently counts Leonard Slatkin (National Symphony Orchestra maestro), Sylvia McNair (renowned opera singer) and Joshua Bell (who’s won a Grammy for his violin mastery) among its faculty.

And you thought Hogwarts profs were cool.

Whenever you need a soothing study break, cheap date or a jolt of inspiration to come down from the heavens, chances are there will be some free classical music or jazz concert going on across Jordan Avenue. Go to www.music.indiana.edu/apps/prelude/new/ or call 855-2255 for more.

The numbers

• 150: Average number of monthly free recitals, jazz and orchestra performances, choral concerts and guest lectures during the fall and spring semesters.

• 9: Chances to see IU Ballet Theater, starting with the “Perspectives 1900s” in October, continuing with the holiday classic “The Nutcracker.”

• 6: Major operas this season, including Puccini’s “La Bohème” in November.

• 600,000: Items in the Cook Music Library, also a leader in the development of digital music libraries.

• 1,100: Live performances offered each year by the school’s departments and performing groups.

• 170: World-class faculty in the Jacobs School

• 6: Orchestras

• 13: Choral ensembles.

Mark Cuban

Joshua Bell

He plays a violin like ringin’ a bell, as Chuck Berry might have phrased it. And Chuck might also favor how Bell — Bloomington native, IU grad and among the world’s most prominent violinists — has loosened up the classical music world a bit in his 39 years. He wears jeans. He’s willing to play a little bluegrass. He was even willing to do some incognito busking at L’Enfant Plaza in Washington D.C., as an experiment for a Washington Post article this year, all the while playing his $3.5 million Stradivarius. He made $32.17 in his 43-minute busking stint, not a bad hourly rate.

Joe Buck

The go-to announcer for Fox Sports whose dad, the late and great Jack Buck, was the radio voice of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club for decades. Joe Buck began his broadcasting career in 1989 as undergraduate and received his degree in English with a minor in telecommunications from IU two years later. At age 25, he became the youngest man ever to announce a regular slate of National Football League games on network television in 1994. He was FOX’s lead play-by-play voice for Major League Baseball by 1996, becoming the youngest man to do a national broadcast for a World Series that year, and was Fox’s lead NFL play-by-play announcer by 2002.

Meg Cabot

Bloomington girls, like those anywhere, can dream of becoming princesses. Cabot, born in Bloomington and a 1991 IU alumna, has authored around 40 books but is best known for “The Princess Diaries,” which prompted a pair of Walt Disney feature films starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews.

Hoagy Carmichael

The State of Indiana put up a historical marker this summer at the spot off Indiana Avenue where Bloomington native Hoagland Howard Carmichael wrote the melody for “Stardust,” perhaps the most-recorded American song of all time. It’s across from the IU School of Law, where Carmichael obtained a degree in 1926, a year after getting his BA from IU.

Carmichael maintained a lifelong affiliation with IU, writing “Chimes of Indiana” in 1937, a song the school made its official co-alma mater in 1978. Along the way, he found time to write songs such as “Georgia on My Mind,” “Up a Lazy River,” “Heart and Soul” and “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.” He epitomized cool for decades. And as a rather nifty sidelight, he also acted in 14 feature films, alongside the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, before being further immortalized as the animated character “Stoney Carmichael” on The Flintstones. You can visit Hoagy’s grave in Rose Hill Cemetery on Bloomington’s west side.

Mark Cuban

This 1977 IU graduate currently wants to buy the Chicago Cubs, but isn’t normally a masochist. Cuban, a former IU rugby player and Foster Quad resident, already indulges his passion for sports as the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, and is reportedly interesting in helping start up a new professional football league. He is widely known as the bane of NBA referees — and given the unfolding betting scandal involving disgraced former official Tim Donaghy, Cuban might have had some cause for complaint at times.

Cuban earned his first million with his start-up company MicroSolutions and then joined fellow IU alumnus Todd Wagner to create Audionet, which provided Webcasts of college basketball games (partly so IU fans such as Cuban, residing far from campus, could still listen to Don Fischer’s dulcet tones). The company eventually brought Cuban a deal supplying him with $5.9 billion worth of Yahoo! stock. He is now chairman of HDNet, a HDTV cable network. Not bad for a guy who collected and sold stamps to help finance his college education.

Jared Fogle

The Subway guy. The IU grad turned his life around by indulging in a Subway-only diet from the store on Atwater. His first commercial for the food chain debuted Jan. 1, 2000. Subway’s sales rose by 18 percent that year and by another 16 percent the following year. An advertising phenomenon had arrived.

Lee Hamilton

This distinguished former Congressman from Evansville was the co-chair of the independent Iraqi Study Group, alongside former Secretary of State James Baker, that presented recommendations to the Bush Administration last year. Hamilton, who won the coveted Trester Award and was an Indiana All-Star as a high school basketball player, heads up the Center on Congress at IU.

Scott Jones

Not shy. An ad posted at the IU School of Infomatics says: “ChaCha, a revolutionary new search engine, is headed by some of Indiana University’s best and brightest alums. This includes the illustrious Scott A. Jones, inventor of voice mail and specific technology components behind iTunes and the iPod.”

ChaCha — billed as the first search engine to connect searchers instantly with live respondents — has recently encountered some controversy, rightly or wrongly, arising from a significant contractual agreement with IU shortly after new IU president (and former vice president for information technology) Michael McRobbie stepped down from the ChaCha board in an attempt to avoid conflict-of-interest complications.

Alfred Kinsey

Sex research. What a concept! Kinsey, an IU professor of entomology and zoology, conceived of it with relish. As a result, in 1947, he founded the Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at IU that now bears his name. If you’re the son or daughter of Baby Boomer parents, your own conception during that 1960s era of “sexual revolution” and “free love” might be owed, in part, to Mr. Kinsey’s pioneering work (Kinsey’s own parents were conservative Christians, by the way, so parenting isn’t always determinative).

Kevin Kline

Kline won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for portraying the spectacularly stupid ex-CIA man “Otto” in the comedy “A Fish Called Wanda,” but the St. Louis native is best known for as the star of 1980s blockbusters such as “The Big Chill” and “Silverado” with director Lawrence Kazdan and now specializes in smart roles in small films.

After arriving at IU as an aspiring classical pianist, Kline joined the on-campus theater group “Vest Pocket Players,” fell in love with theater and switched to acting before graduating in 1970. In addition to his Oscar, Kline is a multiple Tony Award-winner and a celebrated Shakespearian.

Bob Knight

During Knight’s mid-1970s heyday of a 29-year stint in Bloomington as IU men’s basketball coach, Hoosier fans didn’t really debate whether their team would win or lose an upcoming game. The only question was margin of victory. Not only is Knight the most influential collegiate men’s basketball coach of his generation but one of his proteges, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, became the most influential coach of the following generation.

Knight graduated his players, raised millions of dollars for IU’s library, routinely did nice things for people behind the scenes, coached nine Big Ten MVPs and 27 All-Americans and won 11 Big Ten titles and three NCAA championships while in Bloomington. He also sometimes belittled and berated people in public and in private, was infamously profane, and embarrassed himself and IU with periodic bouts of temper and petulance. A lot of Indiana fans felt Knight’s many positives outnumbered and outweighed the very overt negatives for much of his tenure, but his dismissal in 2000 meant he was at Texas Tech last season when he become the all-time NCAA career leader in coaching wins.

Sylvia McNair

After winning multiple Grammys during a storied career as an opera, classical, Broadway and pop vocalist, McNair deserves yet another standing ovation for courageously confronting and combating breast cancer since 2006, the same year she joined the faculty at the school which bequeathed her Master’s degree in 1983, IU’s Jacobs School of Music. Her treatments have included mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but she is currently in remission and is fully into her teaching.

Joseph Muhler

Muhler, along with mentor Harry Day and colleague William Nebergall, were the three IU researchers who patented stannous flouride, the cavity-fighting ingredient now ubiquitous in tooth paste but which initially enabled Proctor and Gamble’s “Crest” product to dominate the market for the better part of three decades after 1960.

Jane Pauley

Former co-host of NBC’s “Today” show and “Dateline NBC,” she continues a long, successful marriage with Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau but has gone public with the news she is dealing with bi-polar disorder, a condition apparently triggered by a combination of steroid and anti-depressant treatments for a case of hives.

Menehem Pressler

Founding-member Pressler announced this year he would soon disband the Beaux Arts Trio, widely acknowledged as the world’s pre-eminent piano trio for the past half-century, but he retains his Dean Charles H. Webb Chair in Music on IU’s faculty.

Tavis Smiley

One of 10 children, the 1986 IU grad hosts is eponymous PBS late-night talk show and has a weekly two-hour show on Public Radio International radio stations. He recently moderated a Democratic presidential candidate forum June 28 and will do the same for a Republican forum Sept. 27.

Janos Starker

Merely one of the most famous cellists ever born — and born he was, as Yoda might put it, July 5, 1924, in Hungary. He (Starker, not Yoda) has taught at IU’s Jacobs School of Music since 1958, nine years after becoming principal cellist of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, then accompanied music director Fritz Reiner to Chicago and became principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony.

Starker’s 1950s recordings of Bach suites were so dazzling in approaching perfection that a few critics wondered (incorrectly) if they were somehow electronically altered.

Jimbo Wales

Jimmy Donal Wales never wrote the doctoral thesis that would have completed his Ph.D. at IU, but he did subsequently manage to come up with Wikipedia. As is the case with fellow IU alum Mark Cuban, he adheres to Ayn Rand’s “objectivist” philosophy.

James Watson

Before arriving in Cambridge and collaborating with Francis Crick to discover the structure of DNA, Watson was earning his Ph.D. from IU in 1950 and conducting pioneering research there with colleagues such as Salvadore Luria and Max Delbruck.

Herman B Wells

Just like Eric Gordon, Wells initially committed to the University of Illinois but had the good sense to wind up at IU.

And as you inevitably grow to love IU, so many reasons why are ultimately attributable to the school’s 11th president, who served in that office or as chancellor for 63 years till his death in 2000.

IU’s student body nearly tripled during Wells tenure, but he never lost that personal touch with students. He perused and signed all 62,621 diplomas issued over that span, often adding personal notes. He desegregated campus. He attracted significant academicians fleeing from the Nazis before and during World War II, including Nobel Prize-winning chemist Herman Muller. He championed the school of music. He kept the campus beautiful and wooded even as it expanded. This list of his accomplishments and his contributions to IU is seemingly endless.

So while on campus, make sure to stroll down to Wells Plaza just inside the Sample Gates at some point to say hello — and thanks — to Herman B, whose statue there portrays him in a relaxed and welcoming posture on a park bench.

And remember, the B never takes a period.

Kevin Kline

Kellen Lewis

There is a lot of scary talent in the ranks of Indiana athletics. Here is a sampling of who to look for as you explore IU sports.

FOOTBALL

Kellen Lewis

• Hometown: Jacksonville, Fla.
• Height: 6-1
• Class: Sophomore
• Weight: 177
• Outlook: Lewis became the starter at quarterback midway through last year and ignited Indiana’s offense. His confidence could spread as he develops into a top-flight, dual-threat quarterback in the Big Ten. Or he could suffer the dreaded sophomore slump now that he’s no longer an unknown with little to lose.

James Hardy

• Hometown: Fort Wayne
• Class: Junior
• Height: 6-7
• Weight: 220
• Outlook: There’s a good chance Hardy will break a slew of Indiana all-time and single-season receiving records this year. That’s impressive, especially when you consider the fact that many people — including Hardy himself — believe the former basketball player still hasn’t reached his football potential.

BASKETBALL

Eric Gordon

• Hometown: Indianapolis
• Class: Freshman
• Height: 6-3
• Weight: 210
• Outlook: At last year’s Midnight Madness, the traditional opening of men’s basketball practice, Eric Gordon was the star of the night. But he was sitting in the stands, drawing chants for having just given a verbal commitment to Kelvin Sampson. This year, he’ll be the star again ­ — for dunking.

Jaime Braun

• Hometown: Marshfield, Wis.
• Class: Sophomore
• Height: 5-8
• Outlook: The versatile guard was named Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year as a freshman. She’ll start this year and will be the glue in Felicia Legette-Jack’s rebuilding project. Basketball purists will love her smart, to ugh style.

FIELD HOCKEY

Haley Exner

• Hometown: San Diego, Calif.
• Class: Senior
• Height: 5-11
• Outlook: Leadership doesn’t usually come from the masked player anchored to the goal box, but it will for the Hoosiers this year. Exner’s that special. She was All-Big Ten last season and will steal a few games this year. Those games should be enough to get Indiana into the NCAA Tournament, where Exner could key a long run for a still-growing program.

Eric Gordon

While most college students were away for the summer, there were major developments at IU’s athletic department.

The biggest news was tragic. Football coach Terry Hoeppner’s death overshadowed the other events of the summer.

But there was better news for sports fans at a groundbreaking ceremony for several new athletics facilities. That ceremony, coincidentally held on the day Hoeppner died, heralded a future in which IU’s facilities in baseball, basketball, football and softball are more comparable with those at other Big Ten schools.

Here’s a run-down on five of the major IU athletics events of the summer:

1. HOEPPNER DEATH

Terry Hoeppner died on June 19 at age 59 after an 18-month battle with a brain tumor. A memorial service for Hoeppner drew several thousand people to Assembly Hall.

Many said that during his two years at IU he had re-invigorated the football program by making fans and players believe the Hoosiers could win.

Indiana’s players announced that they were dedicating the season to Hoeppner, pledging that they’d fulfill his goal to “Play 13” by making a bowl game.

Wide receiver James Hardy spoke at the memorial service on behalf of the players and gave very emotional remarks, calling Hoeppner a father figure who had helped him turn around his life when he was at his lowest.

“I feel it’s my duty, as well as other players on the team, to make sure his legacy continues,” Hardy said.

2. LYNCH PROMOTED

Four days before Hoeppner’s death, IU athletic director Rick Greenspan held a press conference to announce that Hoeppner would not be able to coach during the upcoming season and that Bill Lynch, 53, would be the head coach for 2007.

Lynch, IU’s assistant head coach the past two years, had previously been a head coach at Butler, Ball State and DePauw, compiling an 81-67-4 record in 14 seasons.

“I can pledge this to all of you and to the fans of Indiana University, we’re going to do everything we possibly can to carry out the vision that Terry had for this football program,” Lynch said that day.

Greenspan said that after the 2007 season the head coaching position will be re-evaluated.

3. NEW FACILITIES

A groundbreaking ceremony for several major athletics facilities was held June 19. The ceremony was not postponed despite Hoeppner’s death that day because his family said he would have wanted it to go on.

The new facilities include enclosing the north end of Memorial Stadium, a basketball development center, baseball and softball stadiums and an academic resource center for athletes.

IU officials said during the ceremony that the new facilities will help current IU athletes develop to their fullest potential athletically and academically, and will help attract the recruits necessary to compete.

“Every kid we’re recruiting right now was born in 1990,” IU basketball coach Kelvin Sampson said. “So when we bring a kid on campus, that’s a different kid. And that’s why these new facilities are going to make a profound impact on our jobs and our ability to bring in the top-level student athletes.”

The new facilities are part of a $55 million plan approved by the IU Board of Trustees.

“These magnificent new facilities are part of Coach Hep’s vision for the IU football program and for all of IU athletics,” IU President Michael McRobbie said. “They focus on athletic and academic excellence.”

4. BASKETBALL RECRUITS ARRIVE

IU’s highly rated class of incoming basketball players arrived in early summer to start working out with their new teammates. The five newcomers, led by freshman Eric Gordon, went on a tour of five games around the state in which they played against local players. The games, intended primarily to introduce the recruits to Hoosier fans, drew big crowds as the recruits won all of the high-scoring contests.

5. COMCAST TAKES ON THE BIG TEN NETWORK

Officials at the nation’s largest cable company, Comcast, tackled the Big Ten Network over the summer, saying the cost of the new network was too high and its programming wouldn’t be as popular as Big Ten officials claimed.

With the Big Ten Network demanding that Comcast put the network on expanded basic cable, rather than on a separate sports tier as Comcast and other cable companies wanted, both sides said their positions were firm. That sets up the possibility that many Big Ten football and basketball games would not be on cable in Bloomington and other Big Ten cities, if an agreement cannot not be reached.

True new student horror is staring at the same cinder block dorm wall night after night. The horror is missing out on all the fun around you.

Avoid that. Go out and make friends.

One of the easiest ways to strike up friendships is by participating in extracurricular activities. Go join a club, you silly shut-in!

Do you like water skiing? Are you against sweatshops? Want to learn more about linguistics? Then there’s a student group for you. Dozens of campus groups exist for students, based around sports, academic interests, ethnicity or nationality, religion, politics and hobbies. There are also scores of intramural sports teams to join. This fall, intramural basketball, flag football, wiffleball, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, badminton and lots more.

If organized activities aren’t your thing, no need to worry. Sometimes meeting new friends can be as easy as opening the front door. Living in the dorms is a great way to get acquainted with new people.

Each dorm is different, with its own building layout, learning communities and cliques. Sometimes just living together in the same space is enough to spark a connection. Hang out in a lounge. Sit down for dinner in a dining hall.

“Our dining hall is really conducive to creating community,” said Yara Cluver, assistant director of the Collins Living-Learning Center. “Collins in particular is a really great place to meet friends,” said Cluver, citing the dorm’s layout and extensive programming. Apart from familiarity breeding friendship, each residence hall will also have its own activities and groups. It’s up to you to take advantage. “It’s a matter of meeting us halfway,” said Cluver.

If some time has passed and you still find yourself not fitting in, don’t worry. IU Counseling and Psychological Services director Nancy Stockton says it’s not uncommon for new students to have trouble connecting with their peers.

“We seem to encounter a lot of students who have lived in the same community all their lives and are accustomed to having deep friendships. When they come to a new place, they may not be used to having to interact,” she said.

Don’t be fed up. “We advise them to be patient with themselves.” Stockton suggests not visiting home too frequently at first, as it takes away opportunities to socialize. She also recommends joining an extracurricular activity.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help if no progress has been made. “With some people that experience extended home sickness, counseling could be helpful because there may be underlying depression or other problems,” she said.

Pause from Facebook

• For a list of student clubs and their Web addresses, see www.iub.edu/student/orgs.shtml.

• For more information on intramural sports teams, see www.iurecsports.org/intramural_sports

• For more information about campus Counseling & Psychological Services, see www.indiana.edu/~health/caps/index.shtml

Bloomington’s underground music scene has been in existence for decades and continues to change each year. Many people assume when they hear the word “underground” that it refers to an art form that is waiting to become “aboveground,” or attempting to be discovered by a larger population; yet the community I am referring to purposefully separates itself from the larger population and, in most cases, would prefer to remain that way.

Rather, the underground creates its scene through a lifestyle/mentality known as DIY (Do It Yourself), playing music any place that music can be played, most often in living rooms, basements, parks and warehouses. The bands that comprise this scene are too many to list, but their overall effect on the greater community is as present as it was 30 years ago, when the community was just beginning to form.

If anyone claims to know Bloomington’s underground and says there’s nothing happening for one reason or another, they haven’t attended one of the countless shows the city has to offer. Just by walking down Kirkwood Avenue, you can see the endless array of past and future happenings by looking at the fliers covering the lampposts and bulletin boards of downtown. Taking a visit to Boxcar Books to pick up a monthly calendar (www.terrorware.com) can introduce you to a whole other world of creative expression — or go online for constant updates (or to post your own shows) at http://calendar.bloomingtonscene.com.

Unlike commercial musicians who work toward achieving fame, money and notoriety, underground musicians find their “success” through touring, setting up shows and independently making LP’s, CDRs and cassette tapes. Their sounds are as diverse as their reasons for creating, but they are united through simply loving music and believing that people can thrive and create without living by most of the societal norms that surround us.

For the next few months, I will attempt to represent the community and capture the incredible variety of music and art forms happening under the radar to spread interest in this supportive, exciting community.

While you all have been away (or before you arrived), Bloomington went through ... absolutely no changes. The weather was hot, and a lot of buildings are being converted into luxury apartments, but the greater “scene” remained surprisingly intact.

That is not to say that there were no shake-ups or departures. For starters, don’t look for WIUX on 100.3 on your FM dial. A country station in Columbus took over the frequency and WIUX slid down the dial a little to 99.1. WFHB saw the departure of manager Ryan Bruce, who headed out West for greener radio pastures.

We also saw the departure of three of the music community’s hardest working members. The ever-present TV Mike packed up and is living the quiet life in San Francisco. Venerable MC Stak has left us for the Windy City, and his Clockwork cohorts Morgan Price and Jeff Franca have moved on as well for the Big Apple.

The only constant is the Jazz Station still not opening. Opening dates pushed back and pushed back. Van Halen got back together before this opened. Wow.

Feel like watching a non-horror movie? Here are the local hot spots for the silver screen to ease your troubled mind.

The Ryder

The Ryder Film Series shows at least one film a day at locations around town, including Bear’s Place (near campus on Third), the Cinemat, the IU Fine Arts building, Laughing Planet Cafe and the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. For $4 (except for Buskirk-Chumley shows, which are $5), you can see foreign-language, classic or an independent film. Check out the series’ paper counterpart, a free arts and culture magazine called The Ryder, or www.theryder.com for full listings.

The Cinemat

Screening room, DVD and video rentals. Check out the Cinemat’s Atomic Age Cinema events for B-horror films and more on Saturdays, plus its wacky hosts ($3). Think Mystery Science Theater. For more, see www.thecinemat.com (This venue is in the midst of deciding what to be, so check out any status changes in coming editions of The Scene.)

The Buskirk-Chumley Theater

The Bus-Chum hosts many different events, including film festivals and regular screenings. Check the Web site at www.buskirkchumley.org.

Monroe County Public Library - main branch

Located mere blocks from campus, the library offers free movie screenings and shelves of DVDs and videos for checkout. Cost to you: a free library card. Check the library’s online calendar to be in the know, or sign up for e-mail notification of film showings: www.monroe.lib.in.us

Starlite Drive-in Theatre

This single screen shows double features; call for show times, which are usually Friday-Sunday, starting at 9 p.m. during the warmer months. Notoriously difficult to find, follow these directions for an old-fashioned movie experience: From the IU campus, take Walnut Street south (which means you actually take College Avenue south until it turns into Walnut) and drive for about 15 minutes. Walnut turns into Old 37 once you cross the four-lane Ind. 37 south of town. Look for the Starlite on your right.

Cinema 67 Drive-in Theater

This drive-in uses digital stereo radio only, 101.1 on your FM dial. There are no speakers or loaner radios on the premises. Cinema 67 opens at 7:35 p.m. and shows a double feature that starts at dusk. Check www.cinema67.com for what’s on screen and for directions. It’s at U.S. 231 and Ind. 67 near Spencer in Owen County, about a half-hour west of Bloomington. Go west on Ind. 46 to get there.

Kerasotes theaters

Bloomington has two multi-screen theaters, Showplace 11, east, and 12, west, part of the Kerasotes corporation. You can sign up for their Five Buck Club and get e-mail updates on when you can go see your preferred flick for $5. Go to www.kerasotes.com.

Independent Film

Join a club or forum to stay connected and support local filmmakers. Cinephile is a resource for independent and amateur filmmakers. The group meets Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union. Check www.cinephileforum.com. The Hospital, 1021 S. Walnut St., www.arthospital.net, is an all-ages club and art space that hosts different events, including indie film showings. The university-affiliated Bloomington Media Arts Group (IMU Room 371, 900 E. Seventh St., bmag@bloomington.in.us) lists volunteer and internship opportunities and can connect you to screenwriters and other film enthusiasts.