Champaign-Urbana’s community magazine FREE

WEEK OF AUGUST !!, !"#$

more on READBUZZ.COMLUNCH DATE 4 JOE MELAND 8 MEDIEVAL GOOD TIMES 10

2 buzz August 22-28, 2014

AUGUST 22, 2014VOL12!NO32

OF LETTERS AND LUNCHES

LET THEREBE LIGHTYE OLDETIMES

04

10 08

IN THIS ISSUE E D I TO R ’S N OT ETYLER DURGAN

KEEPIN! IT CORNY

CALENDAR

Butter up your weekend with Urbana's Sweetcorn Festival

Your guide to this week's events in CU

06

12COMMUNITY

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

FOOD & DRINK

MOVIES & TV

Adventure Time

by Jenny Sophia Nunez

by Austin Gomez

Runway Retrospect

Robin Williams:In Memoriam

by Emily Dorolek

by Kaitlin Penn

ON

REA

DBU

ZZ.C

OM

Join us on a trip through the life and career of late actor Robin Williams, famous for fi lms such as Hook and The Dead Poets

Society, that will leave you burning to seize the day.

Champaign Ski and Adventure Club hosts its Annual Farm Party on Saturday. Club membership not required, but a sense of adventure and love of nature are.

The warm summer months often inspire an obsession with all patterns fl oral, fun and bright, and designer Lilly Pulitzer captured that "summer feel" with more mastery than most.

Round Table Review - 8.22.14

With the summer coming to a close, the Music Staff sounds off on their current musings before beginning the semester.

Book Review:Secret Ingredientsby Paul Angelillo

Get our take on The New Yorker’s self-titled “Book of Food and Drink.” With some 60 short stories and essays from names like Bourdain and Dahl see if such a selection of literary fl avors stays appetizing all the way.

Students return to campus en masse this weekend, bringing with them the associated traffi c congestion and long lines at Chipotle. The huge infl ux of peo-ple requires an over-whelmingly massive

(and massively overwhelming) Quad Day to help us sort ourselves into clubs and student organiza-tions and perpetuate a divisive social categoriza-tion. The event is any marketing team’s wet dream, however, and buzz will be there with the rest of them, seeking out the best and the brightest new arts and culture writers.

In all seriousness, getting involved is an essential going-away-to-college experience. I was fortunate enough to make lots of friends and meet people with similar interests quickly. One of my earliest memo-ries revolves around a house show a few miles off campus, somewhere in Urbana. It was a Halloween show put together by the now-defunct CU Collec-tive. I don’t remember which bands played, except Hank. (it was one of their very fi rst shows—it’s crazy to think that my undergraduate career lasted longer than Hank.’s tenure: R.I.P. Hank.). Kyle Lang of Easter drummed for whatever band opened—an odd fan-boy moment for me, after discovering Demonstrationwhile still a senior in high school and following Eas-ter’s rise in the local music scene from afar.

The decision to check out the show had been made on an impulse; as I walked back to my freshman dor-mitory from dinner, a couple guys I had just met were standing outside, waiting for a bus. They invited me along and, fi guring these were as good Monday night plans as any else I might stumble upon, boarded the Greenhopper for the depths of Urbana.

What I am trying to say is, fi nd people and things to do that match your interests, and the rest will follow. Although Quad Day can be supremely powerful in both assisting and confounding the process, it by no means represents everything there is to do in Champaign-Urbana or even on campus. Maybe you want to write about music, movies, food, arts or the community and will come write for the esteemed publication currently in your hands or on your brows-er. Maybe that isn’t your thing, but you will turn to buzz events and groups that are whatever your thing happens to be. Hell, get on a bus and go fi nd that thing. Enjoy your time here; it goes by way too fast.

August 22-28, 2014 buzz 3

» People who order shots of de-caf espresso: What's the point?

HEADS UP!

HIDDEN TREASURES

Members, staff and guests of the Urbana Free Library have teamed up to give back to the com-munity in one of their summer events.

Numerous donors have given used books to the library to be sold at great prices for other people to own. This triannual event occurs every April, August and November throughout fi ve sequential days each time.

Today, books will be sold for everyone from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday will feature a half-price book sale from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Any books that go unsold will be given out for free on Monday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., but don’t wait! All proceeds will support new library materials and programs for community members to utilize.

If you are looking to donate some books of your own, be sure to check the Urbana Free Library web-site, urbanafreelibrary.org, for a list of guidelines.

The sales will take place in the Lewis Audito-rium on the ground fl oor, and we hope that the avid reader in you will take advantage of this great event! The Urbana Free Library is located at 210 W. Green St.

GRIPE DIANA DIGGSPhotography Editor

LIKES, GRIPES & YIKES

BY MATT MESCHINO

COVER DESIGN Jillian MartinEDITOR IN CHIEF Tyler Durgan

MANAGING EDITOR Kaitlin PennART DIRECTOR Jillian Martin

COPY CHIEF Esther HwangPHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Diana Diggs

IMAGE EDITOR Kaitlin PennPHOTOGRAPHERS Tracy Russell, Karolina Zapal

DESIGNERS Bella ReinhoferMUSIC EDITOR Sean Neumann

FOOD & DRINK EDITOR Paul AngelilloMOVIES & TV EDITOR Ash Valentine

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Anwen ParrottCOMMUNITY EDITOR Carly Gubbins

ONLINE EDITORS Maya TrillingDISTRIBUTION Brandi and Steve Wills

ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Deb SosnowskiPUBLISHER Lilyan J. Levant

BUZZ STAFF

ON THE WEBhttp://readbuzz.com EMAIL buzz@readbuzz.com

WRITE 512 E. Green St., Champaign, IL 61820 CALL 217.337.3801

We reserve the right to edit submissions. buzz will not publish a letter without the verbal consent of the writer prior to publication date. buzz

Magazine is a student-run publication of Illini Media Company and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of the University of

Illinois administration, faculty or students.

© ILLINI MEDIA COMPANY 2014

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STATEMENT

»Pop-Up Pilsberry Tubes: cin-namon rolls, crescent rolls, Grands biscuits, those refrigerat-ed tubes they live in never fail to give me some sort of anxiety. As you carefully unwrap the card-

board packaging you never know exactly when it's going to pop open, revealing a balloon of raw dough. Not to mention wriggling your fi ngers into the packaging trying to get the contents out is a battle all in itself, even before you take to the task of rolling them up on a baking tray. Don't get me wrong I am a very devoted Pilsberry fan but their packaging leaves much to be desired.

GRIPE MAYA TRILLINGOnline Editor

»

LIKE ESTHER HWANGCopy Cheif

»When people tell you they would, but...: Whether it is a work matter or someone who (I think) owes me a favor, nothing is more irritating to me than people giving me a reason why they can or can't

do something. I asked a "yes or no question", mean-ing the only answer I need is a yes or a no. It's as sim-ple as that. I couldn't care less about how you really, really wish you could, but you can't because you're SUPER busy. Or that you have a family emergency. A simple yes or no will suffi ce, thank you very much.

GRIPE CARLY GUBBINSCommunity Editor

»When people say they are too busy to do said favor: I'm (probably) busier than you are. Now, leave me alone so that I can watch more 30 Rock episodes on Netfl ix.you very much.

4 buzz August 22-28, 2014

MOVIES & TV

BUZZFRIDAY AUGUST 22corp note...keep this same size always

1 X 4.751/8th page

217-355-3456

No passes SHOWTIMES 8/22 - 8/26

S. Neil St. (Rt. 45) at Curtis Rd.

GQTI.com and on Facebook

LUXURY STUDIO

TAMMY (R) 11:40, 4:50, 9:40 FRI/SAT LS 12:00 AMERICA (PG-13) 2:00, 7:15

CHILDREN 11 AND UNDER NOT ADMITTED.CHILDREN 12 - 16 MUST BE ACCOMPANIED

BY AN ADULT.

CHILDREN 11 AND UNDER NOT ADMITTED.CHILDREN 12 - 16 MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT.

WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (PG) 11:00, 11:30, 1:35, 2:05, 4:10, 4:40, 6:45, 7:15, 9:20, 9:50 FRI/SAT LS 12:00 IF I STAY (PG-13)11:50, 2:15, 4:40, 7:05, 9:30 FRI/SAT LS 11:55 FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (R)11:45, 12:15, 2:10, 2:40, 4:35, 7:00, 7:30, 9:25FRI/SAT LS 11:45, 12:15 3D FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (R)$2.50 PREMIUM PER 3D TICKET 5:05, 9:55 THE GIVER (PG-13)11:40, 2:00, 4:15, 6:30, 8:45 FRI/SAT LS 11:00 THE EXPENDABLES 3 (PG-13) 12:55, 3:45, 6:35, 9:45 BOYHOOD (R) 11:25, 2:50, 6:15, 9:40A MOST WANTED MAN (R) 11:05, 1:50, 4:35, 7:25, 10:05 LET’S BE COPS (R) 12:20, 2:45, 5:10, 7:35, 10:00TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (PG-13) 11:20, 1:45, 4:10, 6:35, 9:00 FRI/SAT LS 11:25THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY (PG) 11:05, 1:45, 4:30, 7:20, 10:05INTO THE STORM (PG-13) 12:50, 3:00, 5:10, 7:20, 9:35GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (PG-13) 11:00, 1:40, 4:25, 7:10, 9:55 FRI/SAT LS 11:45

3D ISLAND OF LEMURS: MADAGASCAR IMAX (G) 11:00, 12:30, 2:00, 3:303D GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY IMAX (PG-13) 4:50, 7:35, 10:15

WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL (PG) 11:15, 4:25, 10:05 FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR (R) 1:55, 7:15

A fresh lookat Champaign-Urbana

magazinePick up a copy every Friday

CINEMA AROUND THE WORLD: THE LUNCHBOXOpen Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, and you’ll find much more than you expectedBY ASH VALENTINE

As Bombay housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur)’s emotionally distant husband leaves for

his job in the morning, she packs her daughter off to school and begins painstakingly prepar-ing her husband’s afternoon meal, heating the wheat chapatis to just the right brownness and adding the perfect amount of spices to his okra, or bhindi. An aged dabbawala rings her doorbell soon after to collect the meal and she hands him the lunchbox. Alternately shaded by banyan trees and pounded by the fierce tropical sun, it joins all of the massive city’s other packed lunches on a byzantine series of rides in crowded trains and handoffs on noisy streets until, still steaming hot, it is set down on her husband’s desk.

This quintessentially Bombay, incredibly com-plex citywide lunch delivery system evinces a certain order to the city’s overarching chaos, but the inevitable crack in this routine in Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox is that, due to a clerical er-ror, Ila’s lunch takes a wrong turn and ends up at the desk of bureaucrat Saajan (Irrfan Khan). The error persists and, once the two realize it, they start exchanging notes in the traveling lunchbox that day by day develop into an epis-tolary romance that makes this film somewhat akin to an Indian You’ve Got Mail.

The two facets of this film that keep it believable and save it from a plot that smacks incredibly of cliché are the remoteness and melancholy that plague its characters, and their actors’ corre-spondingly measured performances. Ila suffers a predicament disturbingly common among Indian housewives: An incredibly remote husband who exchanges fewer than two sentences with her on a daily basis, and a life entirely spent cook-ing, cleaning or gossiping with Mrs. Deshpande, who lives upstairs, from her apartment’s window. Saajan is a disgruntled widower who terrifies the neighborhood kids and smokes on his balcony, gazing hungrily at the fiery glow of neighboring windows where families fighting, living, and loving each other can be seen. It immediately becomes clear just how replete the lives of Saajan and Ila are with solitude and monotony, as the highlight of each of their days arrives when one receives a note from the other commenting on something

as quotidian as an awkward feel-up on the train or as wistful as a contemplation of life in a faraway land. As their relationship progresses from its gruff beginnings, Saajan and Ila reveal increas-ingly sentimental and pensive sides of each other, as Ila hears of another stranded housewife who jumped off a rooftop with her child to escape the loneliness and tells Saajan of how she fears her-self doing the same, and as Saajan writes that he dreams of what life is like in the kingdom of Bhutan, where he hears all of the inhabitants are perpetually content.

The excellent performances of Khan and Kaur only serve to further emphasize the emotionally disconnected life that many lead in metropo-lises like Mumbai, where it is notoriously easy to feel lost between the throngs in the streets, the slums on the roadsides and the unbridled chaos of its traffic.

Khan is especially known in Indian cinema for his incredibly stoic, understated delivery, which led to him being cast in a number of villainous roles earlier in his career such as a serial killer in the crime series Darr. His trademark stark, seem-ingly emotionless acting can be exaggerated to a fault, as it was in the ostensibly poignant but ulti-mately aimless Road to Ladakh. However, when a director like Batra utilizes his performance effec-tively, Khan conveys multitudes of emotion in the slightest frown, and a characteristically taciturn demeanor makes his rare outbursts of sentiment all the more powerful. Such subtle and layered acting is rare in an Indian film industry known for improbably spontaneous musical numbers and melodrama, and, when Khan’s remoteness is balanced effectively with his fleeting but gripping bouts of feeling, as in The Lunchbox or in Meera Nair’s The Namesake, the result is a cinematic treat to behold. A performance as stern and re-strained as Khan’s necessitates a sentimental foil, and Nimrat Kaur also does not disappoint in the skillful execution of her role as Ila, balancing the loneliness and longing of her existence with a frankness and verisimilitude that make her com-pelling while simultaneously keeping her from descending into Bollywood oversentimentality.

Apart from Khan and Kaur, Batra’s cast is

intentionally sparse but a few commendable supporting cast performances emerge. Nawa-zuddin Siddiqui in particular shines as Shaikh, Saajan’s inept understudy who disguises his orphanhood with a blend of casual white lies and stubborn optimism. Bharati Achrekar as Ila’s ‘auntie,’ Mrs. Deshpande, despite never appearing on screen, manages to convey a hidden concern and care for Ila in her yelled conversations from the apartment above and in the spices she lowers for Ila, akin to deliveries of emotional support and supplies to a caved-in miner, stranded and aching for the light of day.

As Saajan and Ila’s tangential relationship de-velops, they each engage in parallel subplots as Ila discovers the scent of another woman on her husband’s laundry but is forced to preserve their marriage so she can pay for her elderly mother’s living expenses, and as Saajan befriends Shaikh and stands in as the best man at his wedding. This theme of one marriage dying as another flourishes sets the stage well for the awkwardly blossoming romance between Ila and Saajan, and these charming subplots, combined with mea-sured yet touching performances and a beautiful tale of near misses and restrained desires, make Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox undeniably charming.

Though the romance between Ila and Saajan abruptly stops and starts more than an auto rickshaw stuck in Bombay traffic, The Lunch-box’s characters, like the chaotic, burgeoning city they live in, are both rough around the edges and beautiful in their hidden complex-ity. Watching the film is not unlike staring at a block of concrete and finding a flower growing in the cracks, or better yet, opening just another day’s lunch and finding something you’ve never seen before innocently awaiting you.

Used with permission from Sony Pictures Classics

August 22-28, 2014 buzz 5

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

WARTIME REFLECTIONSThe Krannert Art Museum kicks off a new schoolyear with four new war-themed exhibitionsBY ANWEN PARROTT

The Krannert Art Museum, although recognized by students and local

residents alike, is a surprisingly underappreciated resource. Most students are familiar with the mu-seum; some have heard about it in passing while others have perhaps taken a class housed in the building or toured one of its many collections to complete an assignment. But far fewer have taken the time to explore the Krannert Art Museum and discover what treasures are tucked away in the unassuming building on Peabody Drive.

The KAM holds numerous permanent and specialized collections, highlighting works from Africa, the Americas, the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia, as well as decorative arts, photographs and paper-based pieces. The various permanent collections amass a total of over 10,000 works of art, including pieces by Winslow Homer, Barbara Kruger, John Singer Sargent, Andy Warhol and Francisco de Goya.

On Aug. 29, the museum will officially wel-come four new—and largely interrelated—exhibitions. While these exhibits draw from drastically different artists and perspectives, the individuals whose work is on display are all connected by the meditation on war that guides their work.

One of the featured exhibitions is Goya’s War: Los Desastres de la Guerra, a travelling exhibit curated by the Goya scholar James Tomlinson. Prior to its Champaign debut, Goya’s War was displayed at the University of Delaware and Frist Center for the Performing Arts in Nash-ville. It will be partially curated and installed at the Krannert Art Museum by Robert LaFrance, the Director of the David Owsley Museum of Art in Muncie, Ind.

During the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, Goya etched wartime imagery on copper plates, which came to be known as his “Disasters of War” series. The exhibition will feature all 80 of these prints and will also include a printing of one of the images in an unfinished, early stage, called a “working proof.”

“Goya’s War is a serious exhibition that is de-signed to both astonish and instruct,” LaFrance said. “It features some of the most amazing and powerful war imagery ever created; Goya’s print series called The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra).”

Goya’s wartime account manages to be artis-

tic and thought provoking, while also serving as a historical record. “On one hand, it invites viewers to look closely at terrible things and marvel at both Goya’s creative power and his timeless insights into the universal miseries of war,” LaFrance said. “On the other hand, it also makes a historical argument that carefully reconstructs the artist’s creative process during the depredations accompanying the Napole-onic invasion of the Iberian peninsula between 1808 and 1814.”

The other exhibitions arriving at the museum right in time for the start of fall semester in-clude La Grande Guerre: French Posters and Photographs from World War I, With the Grain: Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Postwar Years and After the Front Line: Artists Who Served in the World Wars.

The latter is curated by Kathryn Koca Po-lite, a curatorial assistant at the Krannert Art Museum. As an employee with access to the museum’s numerous collections, Polite was able to search throughout Krannert to uncover works by artists who served in WWI or WWII. She then created a compilation of the powerful pieces she found. In the exhibition, she collects and highlights the experiences of various artists after serving in either World War. The show in-cludes work by many well-known European and American artists, from George Grosz, Otto Dix, Yves Tanguy, Roy Lichtenstein, Henry Moore and Ellsworth Kelly to the lesser known Cleve Gray, Rico Lebrun and Joseph Goto.

The exhibition provides a number of lenses through which to view wartime violence, as well as the societal, governmental and cultural causes of war and the aftermath of exposure to such occurrences.

“One thing that I’d like viewers to take away is that everyone processes their experiences differ-ently,” Polite said. “The works on display in this exhibition range from satire to visceral fi guration to complete abstraction—not all directly refer-encing war or its aftermath. Without experiencing war fi rst-hand, I can only assume that it is, at the very least, life-altering.”

The connections that can be drawn between each of the four exhibitions are astonishing. One goal of Polite’s in the assembling of After the Front Line was to clearly and resoundingly display this fact.

“From the very beginning, I wanted to comple-ment the exhibition La Grande Guerre, which dis-plays World War I propaganda posters, but I think After the Front Line also responds to Goya’s War: Los Desastres de la Guerra,” Polite said. “Not only do some of the works in After the Front Line de-pict the atrocious violence and aftermath of war, but several of the artists displayed were directly infl uenced by Goya’s series. The opportunity to see an artist’s direct infl uence in another gallery doesn’t happen very often!”

LaFrance, too, refl ected on the compelling and unusual amount of connection between exhibi-tions; a connection that he believes extends to the

personalized experience of each individual that will visit the exhibitions throughout the semester.

“As they walk through Goya’s War, younger people may see shocking comparisons to con-temporary images from the Ukraine or recent scenes from Ferguson, Missouri,” he said. “This is the point of the show; Goya’s imagery is time-less, and that says something unfortunate about our ability to learn from the past.”

The War-themed exhibitions will all be on dis-play throughout the Krannert Art Museum from Aug. 29 until Dec. 23. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and admission is free.

Used with permission from Krannert Art Museum.

6 buzz August 22-28, 2014

FOOD & DRINKFOOD & DRINK

SWEETCORN, SWEETER MUSIC39th Annual Sweetcorn Festival pops into UrbanaBY SHRUTI SRIKUMAR

As the summer starts winding down, CU residents, returning University stu-

dents and individuals from surrounding com-munities celebrate Illinois’s agricultural bounty of corn during the titular Urbana Sweetcorn Festival. The festival, now in its 39th iteration, is a two day long celebration that attracts as many as 55,000 visitors with its family friendly activities, live musical entertainment, local ven-dors and–of course–mouthwatering sweetcorn. This year, the festival will be held over Friday, Aug. 22 from 5 to 11 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 23 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and will be situated in the heart of downtown Urbana on Main Street, between Race and Vine Streets. With such an array of amusements to choose from, the fol-lowing preview of activities, entertainment and food featured at the 2014 Urbana Sweetcorn Festival will ensure you’re not lost in the corn-fields during Urbana’s premiere summer event.

The activities at the festival are guaranteed fun for children who have had their fill of sweet

treats and are looking for a bit of interactive, en-ergetic fun. This year, kids can kick their shoes off and jump about on an inflatable play area, take a stab at reaching the top of a climbing wall or even challenge themselves in a friendly game of laser tag. Alternatively, the festival also offers some calmer activities including paper making, an “instrument petting zoo” where children will be able to express their musical spirit by sampling various musical instruments and a “prosperity garden,” which will allow in-dividuals to contribute to a local community garden. Along with these children’s activities, the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival will also host the “Motor Mustang Car Show” on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., offering adults and motor enthusiasts a host of truly remarkable 1964 to 1989 Ford Mustangs to browse and appreciate.

Alongside the activities, the festival also traditionally provides attendees with loads of local, live entertainment. This year, the enter-tainment will be especially exciting with the

addition of the brand new CU Folk and Roots stage which will feature tunes from local art-ists such as The Curses and John Coppess and Friends. Other performance stages include the One Community Together Stage and the Miller Main Stage, the former of which showcases local school marching bands and dance en-sembles. On Saturday night, the Miller Main Stage will host the Sweetcorn Festival’s highly anticipated headliner, Eddie Money. That’s right, Eddie Money! All in all, the grand total of three stages makes for two days of nonstop music that everyone can enjoy.

Lastly, the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival will have some 90 different vendors on show, of which approximately 30 will be dedicated to food. Local restaurants in attendance will of-fer a wide range of cuisines that can please everyone no matter what their preference. If you want some all American festival favorites, stop by Bud’s BBQ, Po’ Boy’s, Manolo’s Pizza & Empanadas or Chester’s. If, on the other hand,

you’re in the mood for global cuisine the festival has got you covered with Los Tacos Locos and Siam Terrace. Other food options for festival go-ers include the Dancing Dog Eatery, the Cracked Egg Food Truck and Piato Café. Additionally the Festival will have stalls for BBQ, hot dogs, and hamburgers as well as tons of sweetcorn avail-able for purchase and–of course–consumption! Apart from the food, the festival will also offer beverages including Miller Light, Bud Light, Blue Moon, margaritas and several different Pepsi products to keep attendees’ thirst quenched.

With all of the great activities, entertainment, and food choices, this year’s Urbana Sweetcorn Festival is sure to be a blast for everybody. Admission is free, so make sure to stop by and enjoy some top notch sweet corn with friends and family!

For detailed lists of each stage’s lineup and other in-formation on the festival please refer to the Urbana Business Association website at http://urbanabusiness.com/sweetcorn-entertainment.

Sweet Corn Festival 2013. Urbana, IL. Photo by Karolina Zapal

August 22-28, 2014 buzz 7

Treat me like a pirate and gimme that booty.

The Urbana Sweetcorn Festival. Photo by Tracy Russell

8 buzz August 22-28, 2014

MUSIC

INTO THE DARKCU band Feral States celebrates second EP at Cowboy MonkeyBY ELI TRACY

F eral States emerged in the CU music scene last year with their debut EP Light, expos-

ing everyone to their unique melding of alt rock and modern classical music. Now gearing up for their Aug. 22 follow-up Dark with a release show at Cowboy Monkey, Feral States is garnering momentum. buzz had the opportunity to speak with frontman Joseph Meland prior to the band’s release show to discuss the new EP, his balance between rock and compositional mentalities and how Feral States will keep pushing forward into the new year.

buzz: On Light, you guys don a well-developed and large sound, in what ways does the follow-up, Dark, build upon that initial primer?

Joseph Meland: Well, with Dark, it continues in that direction. I would say musically each song has a more homogenous sound of togetherness, whereas on Light it’s like, “Here’s the blues rocky song, and here’s the more expansive indie rock song.” Dark definitely has a more homogenous sound throughout and sonically, it’s more on the experimental side compared to Light. We expand-ed the forms a little more in the songs, and there’s a greater amount of influence from the logical end of things. Two of the songs actually began as pieces that I had written for class this year—one was for solo harp and the other one was for solo piano. Another one, we recorded a lot of different odd sounds for; so we recorded different piano

sounds, like picking the piano strings with a guitar pick, singing into the piano and things like that. We also used bowed cymbals and even bowed music stands; it’s just been really cool!

buzz: So would you say it’s been a natural progression?JM: Yeah! We took it to the next level, I think,

which makes it a little bit more challenging than it was, but also more rewarding at the same time.

buzz: You’re satisfied with the overall final prod-uct, then?

JM: Absolutely, I was actually in charge of all of the mixing and recording, so I think I was able to get more of the sound that I wanted. It was pretty gratifying at the end of everything to be on the other side and be like, “damn,” (laughs) so yeah we’re really excited!

buzz: With your background in both compositional and rock music do you ever at times find that those respective mentalities conflict or is there always a clear balance to you?

JM: That’s an interesting question. I feel like a lot of my writing for the group is... Well, I sit down and write everything down on paper and I flesh out ideas in my head, but that’s not really that “rock-y.” I feel like a rock band would usu-ally get together and jam, so I’m experimenting with going more down that route for our next release. There’s a little bit of a disconnect in between, but I guess we’ll see.

buzz: Now that you mention the writing process,

how much group collaboration actually goes into a typical song?

JM: Well, we usually start off with me com-ing to the group with a song on paper, playing everyone the parts, and we’ll play through it together, chew it out. People will come up with suggestions and ideas and so they get molded a little bit by the group, but they’re usually pretty true to the original song.

buzz: With such a large band and composed sound, what can one expect from a typical Feral States show?

JM: What you can expect to hear is a different sound from the recordings, for sure, because we haven’t actually played a show yet with all the part being covered. It’s hard to sit that many people on a stage and coordinate that many schedules and all that jazz. Usually, I’ll be covering more parts on the keyboard, and also our saxophone player Dan (Hinze) has a more active role. We will stretch out some of the forms so there will be longer solo sec-tions or longer sections for us to jam through and mess around a little bit. There’s actually a couple songs where we’ve added stuff since the record-ing, new sections and things like that.

buzz: So all together it’s a different experience than what people may be used to from the recordings?

JM: Yeah, and I want that. If someone wants to hear the album, they can listen to the album; I like to bring something new to the table during

the live show.buzz: That sounds like a total jazz mentality with

extended solos and unique performances. Do you have any background in jazz music?

JM: I’ve played trumpet in my high school jazz band before, but some of our other members are more active in the jazz scene. Dan, our sax player, plays in a couple combos, Sam (Hasting), our guitar player, has a degree in jazz performance—a Masters in that. Our other guitar player Noah (Gehrmann) is working on his Bachelor’s in Jazz Performance, so they’re more involved with the jazz world than I am.

buzz: Aside from the new EP, what else can we ex-pect for Feral States in the future?

JM: Well, the plan is to not really take any time off and to just start working on the next recording. I have the groundwork for four or five songs laid down, so I’m excited to bring those to the table. Now that we’re all kind of in the same location again, and now that the semester is starting, we’ll have more of an opportunity to work through that stuff. We’re working on shows for this semester, right now we have a WEFT Session scheduled Sept. 8 which will be live at 10 p.m. We’ll be play-ing there, so yeah we’re just going to get to play and put out new music.

Catch Feral States at Cowboy Monkey this Friday with Opposite Box. Show starts at 10 p.m. and costs $7.

Feral States performs at Mike N Molly's. Photo by Priten Vora, used with permission from Pizza FM

August 22-28, 2014 buzz 9

Miss Trunchible gon whoop my ass.

by Matt Jones “Bebop”--try to keep up!JONESIN’

Across1 “Cast Away” carrier5 Is willing to10 Cyberbidder’s site14 Scat legend Fitzgerald15 Film score composer

Morricone16 “The Joy of Cooking”

author Rombauer17 Packing the wrong

clothes for the shore?19 Comic-Con attendee,

probably20 Participate in charades21 Kyle’s little brother on

“South Park”22 Coop matriarchs23 Valentine offering25 Cracker with seven

holes27 Dance music with slow

shifting bass sounds31 Artists using acid34 Word following who,

what, when or how35 Beatnik’s bro37 Pen name?38 Give a hint to40 “___ have something

stuck in my teeth?”41 Prefix with trafficking43 CTRL-___-DEL44 Throws out47 Social finesse48 Early rock nickname,

with “The”50 The O in “Jackie O”52 Sty reply53 Alumnus54 Like cotton candy56 Fish in Japanese

cuisine58 Imposed limits on63 Gymnastics legend

Korbut64 Part of the

neighborhood where all the downers live?

66 “James and the Giant Peach” author Roald

67 Half a Danny Elfman band

68 Second word in fairy tales

69 Chip that starts a pot70 Element from the

Greek word for “strange”

71 “Jeopardy!” owner

Down1 Country’s McEntire2 “30 Rock” star Baldwin3 Half step lower, in music4 Stuffed shell food5 Like platypuses6 Palindromic

experimentalist7 Get the knots out8 Enjoy a scoop9 Shannen of “90210”10 Half of half of half11 Undergarments that

allow for air flow?12 “Agreed!”13 Runs off at the mouth18 Johnny Cash cover of a

Nine Inch Nails song24 “Boston Legal” actor26 Double-clicked symbol27 “Unleaded” beverage28 Dangly lobe in the

throat29 Report from a slow

vegetable-purchasing day?

30 ___ Lanka31 Tabloid worker32 Christina of “Black

Snake Moan”33 Glasgow residents36 Dwarf with glasses39 Vegas night sight42 E-mail address

symbols45 Diner player46 Eat, as pretzels49 Series ender51 Very little, as of

ointment53 Oldest man in space

John54 Club or cream follower55 Stratagem57 Mario of the NBA59 Favorable factor60 The cops, in slang61 MBA’s course62 Fashion initials65 Earlier than now

Stumped? Find the solutions in the Classifieds pages.

10 buzz August 22-28, 2014

COMMUNITYCOMMUNITY

1

HUZZAH!Danville’s Illinois Renaissance Festival returns this weekend for its annual blast from the pastBY MELISA PUTHENMADOM

“Now, father, you’re living in the past. This is the 14th century!” –Prince Phillip, Sleeping Beauty (1959)

The Illinois Renaissance Festival is returning to Ellsworth Park in Danville on Aug. 23 and 24, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. Established in 2003 by the Prairie Players Theatre Academy Inc., the festival recreates a medieval atmosphere set at the time of King Henry VIII’s reign.

Plenty of entertainment is set to bring the Re-naissance back to life: Artisans offer handcraft-ed works, including jewelry, clothing, ceramics, glassware and toys, and eateries invite you to “feast like a king on hearty food and drink.”

Every year, a portion of the festival’s revenue goes to a charity. This year, the proceeds are go-ing to the Homeless Veterans, Toys for Tots and a special-needs military family. Visitors are encour-aged to bring a new toy in its original packaging to support Toys for Tots of Champaign.

JoMarie Dugan, the director of the festival and the driving force behind its inauguration in 2003 says, “We do this for the love of the art and to help those less fortunate they us. It’s a great cause and lots of fun.”

The Renaissance Festival is ultimately a fund-raiser that allows patrons to step back in time and forget their modern-day distractions and worries. It also serves as the perfect platform for education about the culture, society and

conditions of the Renaissance period.Theatre was, of course, an integral part of medi-

eval culture and a main source of entertainment. The Shattock Schoole of Defence, a Shakespear-ean Comedy Act, will light their own arena along with Robbin Marks Magic, whose act includes an adaptation of Houdini’s Metamorphosis, and The Pickled Brothers Circus (performing at the Festival since 2010), whose acts include fire eat-ing, sword swallowing, juggling, a bed of nails and regularly breaking Guinness World Records.

Perhaps the most exciting of these acts include Paragon Jousting, a theatrical troupe based in Au-rora, N.Y. Their performers have been doing edu-cational demonstrations about medieval culture and knighthood for years. Also founded in 2003, the company will provide a dramatic three-part act to energize the crowd.

Included in their repertoire is the Joust of Peace, a friendly challenge between Knights, where they compete in various martial contests to prove who is the strongest. The challenge ends with an ar-mored joust where knights try to break lances or unhorse their opponent. The Joust of War features contests of skill, armored jousting and sword fighting both on horse and dismounted.

The dangers of these performances are very real, as they use blunted high-carbon steel swords and authentic wooden lances. Each

“knight” performs in a full suit of armor, as expensive as it is heavy. The performers may sketch out a story over three acts, but the results of the games are left up to chance.

Paragon Jousting seamlessly recreates the his-torical context of knighthood. Each performer has a character and back story to bring in a dramatic element to the show as well as echo aspects of Renaissance culture.

Some performances include discussions of the code of chivalry, emphasizing order, honor and mutual respect. The Brotherhood of Steel, Inc. will be at the Festival focusing on just that—providing live steel fighting and discussing the Knight’s Code.

Other performers aim simply to dazzle and impress. Rondini the Great Escape Artist, a new addition to the Festival, is described as bringing a “New Flair to the Ancient Art of Escape, combin-ing Amazing Skill, Humor and Audience Participa-tion to create an unforgettable experience!”

These acts are perhaps the best indication that the Renaissance Festival is a product of many influences. History provides plenty of punchlines: Shakespeare’s career reached its height decades after Henry VIII’s reign, yet a performance of the play he wrote about Henry VIII was the reason the Globe Theatre burned down in 1613. Houdini was a staple of American

vaudeville in the early 20th century, yet escape artists and extreme street performances fit in perfectly with medieval entertainment.

The festival’s all-inclusive nature has even brought Native American stories, songs and Powwow dances to the stage, courtesy a liaison/volunteer archaeologist with the Illiniwek Group in northeast Missouri. Billed as a Duchess of the New World, she’s described “an Oglala woman, who made a place for herself in King Henry’s court in 2013.” It goes to show that the festival’s educa-tional nature remains enthusiastic for all cultures.

So while period-accurate clothing is not required to join in the festivities, many festival-goers enjoy blending in with the Renaissance atmosphere to make the most of their experience. As their performers and vendors illustrate, the general approach to historical accuracy is “wear a nice attitude”: the overall purpose of the festival is to have fun. Keep your eyes and ears open, sing a few sea shanties and be sure to enjoy the many quirks and oddities of this year’s Renaissance Festival.

General admission costs $8; seniors (ages 60 and up) and students (ages 6 to 15) receive a dis-count of $6, and children ages 5 and under and military personnel with IDs are free. For a full schedule and list of performers, visit http://illi-noisrenaissancefestival.com.

Photos used with permission by the Illinois Renaissance Festival

August 22 - 28, 2014 buzz 11

CLASSIFIEDSPlace an Ad:

217 - 337 - 8337 Deadline: Thursday

for that Friday’s edition.Display ads: 11 a.m. Line ads: 2:00 p.m.

Employment 000Services 100Merchandise 200Transportation 300Apartments 400Other Housing/Rent 500Real Estate for Sale 600Things To Do 700Announcements 800Personals 900

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employment ROOMS 530

rentalsFOR RENT

transportation

HOUSES FOR RENT 510

HELP WANTED 010Full time

APARTMENTS 410Furnished/Unfurnished

APARTMENTS 430Unfurnished

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HELP WANTED 020Part time

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APARTMENTS 430Unfurnished

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12 buzz August 22-28, 2014

AUGUST !! " !#, !$%&CALENDAR• E-mail: send your notice to buzz@illinimedia.comSUBMIT YOUR EVENT TO THE CALENDAR:

COMMUNITY

MOVIES & TVFOOD & DRINK

MUSIC

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

FEATURED

FALL !"#$ PUBLIC OPENING RECEPTIONThursday, August 28; 5-7 p.m.

Krannert Art Museum; free

The museum will host a public evening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. and remain open until 9 p.m. on Thursday, August 28.

%%TH PRIMETIME EMMYS TELECASTMonday, August 25; 7 p.m.

Courtyard Cafe; free

ILLINI PRIDE ILLINITESFriday, August 28;

8 p.m.-2 a.m.

Illini Union; free

YMCA’S DUMP & RUN SALESaturday, August 23; 8 a.m.-4 p.m.U of I Stock Pavilion (1402 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Urbana); $2

ORGANIC GARDENS OPEN HOUSESaturday, August 23; 3-5 p.m.Meadowbrook Park Interpretive Center (Race St., Urbana); free

PRIMARY CARE CLINIC Sunday, August 24; 1-4 p.m.

Avicenna Community Health

Center (819 Bloomington

Rd!., Champaign); free

BOARD GAME NIGHT Monday, August 25; 6-9 p.m.

Leonhard Recreation Center

(2112 Sangamon Drive,

Champaign);

$5-10

KICKAPOO RAIL TRAIL FUNDRAISER Thursday, August 28; 6:30-8 p.m.Sleepy Creek Vineyards (8254 E. 1425 N. Rd., Fairmount); $50 (suggested donation)

Raise funds for the 24.5-mile trail that will run Urbana east to Vermilion County while enjoying food, drinks and learning more about the Champaign County Forest Preserve District’s project.

FRIENDS OF THE URBANA LIBRARY BOOK SALE GIVEAWAYThursday, August 21 to Monday, August 25; 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

The Urbana Free Library (210 W. Green St.); free

The Friends of the Urbana Free Library will hold their Sweet Corn Festival Book Sale from August 21 to 25. Books remaining on Monday the 25 are free! Ready your bookshelves for new additions to your personal library.

URBANA SWEETCORN FESTIVALSaturday, August 23; 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Downtown Urbana between Race & Vine Streets; prices vary

per item

Just a week after the Taste of CU, it’s now Urbana’s time to shine. The 39th Annual Sweetcorn Festival brings together three stages of music, food vendors, merchandise, a vintage car show and, of course, all you can eat Illinois sweetcorn. With Eddie Money headlining this year’s festival, it’s a weekend not to be missed!

ROOKIE COOKS AT THE DOUGLASS BRANCH LIBRARYMonday, August 25;

4-5 p.m.

504 E. Grove St., Champaign;

register by calling

217-403-2090

KRANNERT UNCORKED Thursday, August 28;

5-7 p.m.

Krannert Center, Stage 5;

free

CALVARYThe Art Theater Co-op, Champaign, Friday, August 22; 5, 7:30 p.m.

A good priest must die to pay for the sins of another. A confessor details being sexually abused by a holy father he trusted and tells innocent preacher Father James he will be killed in seven days to atone for the sins of the late priest. This dark Irish religious drama stars Brendan Gleeson as James and is directed by John Michael McDonagh.

FERAL STATES &EP RELEASE SHOW'Friday, August 22;

10 p.m.

Cowboy Monkey;

$7

WICKED WALLS W/ BLONDER, IN HEATSunday, August 24;

8 p.m.

Mike ‘N’ Molly’s;

$7EDDIE MONEYSaturday, August 23; 5 p.m.

Urbana Sweet Corn Festival; free

Eddie Money comes to Urbana to perform at this year’s Sweet Corn Festival with Brushville and local band Decadents. The musician, who had top-40 hits from the ‘70s through the early ‘90s, brings his energetic, live show to Urbana for free.

EARTH WITCH W/ AIRACOBRA, MAETHSunday, August 24;

9 p.m.

Thee DeathTower;

$5

CURB SERVICEFriday, August 22;

7 p.m.

Mike ‘N’ Molly’s;

$7