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'Coming back down to earth'

Sixty-nine years ago yesterday (Oct. 29), the stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression.

Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Clements takes a look at 1998's "coming back down to earth" stock performance, and quotes a study by IU finance professor Richard Shockley and colleagues from Dartmouth College and Rice University. The three looked at the returns of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index during the 34 years that ended in 1995. You can read Clement's "Your Money" column at this Web address:

http://chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/article/0,1051,SAV-9810210033,00.html

Einstein saw the future 80 years ago

Through a partnership between the IU Folklore Institute and the Indiana Arts Commission, TAI is sending researchers into all 92 counties during the next two years to document Indiana's rich and varied cultural heritage and to begin developing a statewide traditional arts program. Researchers have started work in Lake and Porter counties in northwest Indiana, and Perry, Spencer and Dubois counties in the south. For information, contact Erin Roth, TAI project manager, at 812-855-0418, eroth@indiana.edu

Scratching the surface

A video commissioned by the IU Department of Dermatology and produced by the Creative Services Facility of the Medical Educational Resources Program/Continuing Medical Education has been awarded a 1998 Bronze Telly Award.

Telly Awards are given in an international competition, with nearly 10,0000 entries, that showcases and recognizes outstanding non-broadcast and video production.

The IU video, entitled Examination of the Skin: Indiana University Skin Exam Series, is a series of four distinct programs that are used as teaching aids for physicians and students at IUSM. The video, created by Drs. Ginat Mirowski and Antoinette Hood, also is being used as a teaching aid at the IU School of Dentistry. The project was an expansion of one originally completed by Dr. Holly Faust.

Related Link:

http://www.telly.com/

Raitt

Two legends in quintessential American music visited IU Bloomington this past month, taking audiences back in time to the hey-day of musical comedy, rock and roll, rhythm and blues and swing.

John Raitt: In 1940, baritone John Raitt debuted in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera's production of HMS Pinafore. It was the same year that Germans bombed Helsinki, an event which destroyed Raitt's dream of competing in the Olympics after a promising athletic career at the University of Redlands.

Raitt simply took his star quality elsewhere. With the role of Billy Bigelow in Carousel, Raitt emerged in 1945 as one of the most notable performers on Broadway's musical stage. In a lecture/performance Oct. 14 at the IU Theatre, Raitt presented a virtual singing history of American musical comedy with pieces from: Carousel, The Pajama Game, Annie Get Your Gun, Zorba, Kiss Me Kate, Oklahoma! and Camelot, among others.

And, he told stories of performances most memorable to him -- being "dead" was an eventful experience. Raitt remembers one night playing dead for the spider that crawled across his face, another for falling asleep, and a third for the kid in the audience who kept yelling at him to see if he was really a goner.

Raitt continues to perform and record and most recently shared a concert with his daughter, Bonnie, on PBS. His visit to IU was sponsored by the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (its director and IU professor Nick Toth had met Raitt through mutual friends), the Department of Theatre and Drama, the Office of Research and the University Graduate School, the School of Music, and the Department of Anthropology.

Otis

Johnny Otis: The son of Greek immigrants, Johnny Otis grew up in a predominantly African- American neighborhood in Berkeley, Calif. "As a kid," he has said, "I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or while, I would be black." He became a writer, performer, producer, and social commentator of the music he is best known for — rhythm and blues.

An inductee into the Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll Halls of Fame, Otis appeared Oct. 24 at IU Bloomington with his R&B/Swing Big Band, in conjunction with the 43rd annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology.

Otis' first hit was Harlem Nocturne in 1945. In 1948, he helped open the Barrelhouse in Los Angeles, the first nightclub to feature rhythm and blues exclusively, and by 1950 had 10 songs making Billboard Magazine's top 10 rhythm and blues list.

In tune with music and its local environments, Otis became a radio personality in 1954, bringing awareness of the black musical tradition to the mainstream, discussing music, society and politics on his show.

Otis discovered singers such as Jackie Wilson, Etta James and the Robins, a group that evolved into the Coasters. He produced early recordings by Little Richard, and produced and recorded the original Hound Dog (You ain't nothin' but ah) with "Big Mama" Thornton.

He performed as a drummer with the Count Basie Orchestra, and his song writing credits include, So Fine, Willie and the Hand Jive, and Every Beat of My Heart, which was written for Jackie Wilson, but became a hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Abstracts of the ethnomusicology meeting are on line, as well as other information about the organization:

http://www.indiana.edu/~ethmusic/

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