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THE QUOTE

“I don’t want to know about the constitution of the rapist — I want to kill him! I don’t care if he is black or white, if he is middle class or poor, if his mother hung him from the clothesline by his balls: I only want to kill him! Any woman who is raped will agree.” — Diamanda Galás

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DIDJA VOTE YET?

No satellite voting centers today. Two new centers will be open Monday & Tuesday.

You may still vote downtown:

❐ The Curry Building, 214. W. Seventh St.

And if you’re still unsure about where your precinct polling place is, go to the Monroe County and State of Indiana find-a-polling place page.

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IN GOD’S OWN IMAGE

Okay, these right wing schmucks have to stop right now.

Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said in last night’s debate that it’s all part of god’s plan when a woman who is raped becomes pregnant. “[T]hat,” Mourdock said, “is something that god intended to happen.”

From God’s Lips To His Ears

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Now get this: when the rest of the sane world started yelling that this was going too far, Mourdock responded after the debate, “Rape is a horrible thing and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick.”

Wait, now we’re absurd and sick?

Let me lay it all out for you, Mr. Mourdock. Your god is a jerk. And so are you.

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PLATH, POETESS

Sylvia Plath is the big deal around the IU campus and Bloomington itself for the next four days.

Saturday will mark 80 years since her birth in 1932. This month also marks the 50th anniversary of her creative explosion. In July, 1962, she discovered her husband, the British poet Ted Hughes, had been having an affair. They separated in September and the next month Plath began to write the vast majority of verse for which she became world renowned.

Just four months later, Plath sealed up the doors and windows of her kitchen, kneeled down before her oven, turned the gas on and stuck her head in. Her body was discovered by a visiting nurse who was due that day to help her care for her two small children.

Sylvia Plath

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Ironically, the women her husband had been seeing killed herself in precisely the same manner some six years later. Hughes became a bete noire among feminists who felt he at least emotionally drove the two women to take their own lives and at worst, physically abused them to the point that they couldn’t bear to live. Several women even publicly vowed to kill him in revenge.

Plath, though, was a lifelong depressive. She’d made half-hearted attempts at suicide as far back as her college years at Smith. It wasn’t until she learned to tap into her inner angst and pain for inspiration that her work became magnificent. In 1959 during a residence at the Yaddo writers colony in upstate New York, she opened up her soul as a poet. She learned there, she said later, “to be true to my own weirdnesses.”

Her works often have invited derision. Plath’s only novel, “The Bell Jar,” and her poetry have been called melodramatic and overwrought. Her life itself occasionally has become fodder for smirkers. In the movie, “Annie Hall,” Woody Allen’s character Alvy Singer pontificates: “Sylvia Plath — interesting poetess whose tragic suicide was misinterpreted as romantic by the college girl mentality.”

Today, you can view the archived Plath collection at the Lilly Library at 3pm. Nine poets will read from Plath’s work at the Monroe County Public Library at six. Throughout the day and for the next three days, academics and versifiers will be discussing and dissecting Plath and her output around town from morning until night.

Scoot on over to the Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012 website for a complete schedule of events.

And stay out of the kitchen, would you?

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The only events listings you need in Bloomington.

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Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

VOTE TODAY ◗The Curry Building, 214 W. Seventh St.; 8am-6pm

STUDIO TOUR ◗ Brown County, various locations — The Backroads of Brown County Studio Tour, free, self-guided tour of 16 local artists’ & craftspersons’ studios; 10am-5pm, through October

LECTURE ◗ IU Memorial Union, Persimmon Hall — Institute for Advanced Study Lecture: Bengt Sadnin talks about “State-Building, Surveillance of Children, & the Rise of Early Modern Education“; Noon

LECTURE ◗ IU Art Museum — Noon Talk Series: “Patrons and Purveyors of Culture,” Michelle Facos talks about Jewsih collectors, patrons, & dealers of German Expressionist works; 12;15-1pm

POETRY & BOOKS ◗ Various locations around IU campus & Bloomington — Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012, celebrating 50 years since the publication of her “Ariel” collection, Through Saturday, Today’s highlights:

LECTURE ◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — “Our National Security,” Presented by Chris Kojm, chair of US National Intelligence Council; 5:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Malibu Grill — Alki Scopelitis; 6-9pm

DISCUSSION ◗ IU SoFA Grunwald Gallery — The panel considers “Books, Text, & Information: The Role of Libraries in the Arts and Humanities” 6-7:30pm

CLASS ◗ IU Art Museum — IU Lifelong Learning course, “What Is a Fine Print?” Three sessions: October 24th & 31st, and November 7th; 6-7:45pm

SCIENCE ◗ Rachael’s Cafe — Bloomington Science Cafe, Tonight’s topic: “The Truthy Project: The Promise & perils of Digital Democracy,” Presented by Karissa McKelvey & Michael Conover; 6:30pm

FILM ◗ IU Cinema — “Blood of Jesus”; 7pm

SPORTS ◗ IU Bill Armstrong Stadium — Hoosier men’s soccer vs. Evansville; 7pm

MUSIC ◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — Kenan Rainwater; 7-9pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Ford-Crawford Hall — Master’s Recital, Amy bearden, mezzo-soprano; 7pm

PERFORMANCE ◗ Unity of Bloomington Church — Auditions & rehearsal, Bloomington Peace Choir; 7pm

STAGE ◗ IU Wells-Metz Theatre — “Richard III“; 7:30pm

LECTURE ◗ IU Memorial Union, State Room East — “Antisemitism and Philosemitism in France: Emile Zola and the Ambiguities of Universalism,” Presented by Maurice Samuels of Yale University; 7:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Max’s Place — Open mic; 7:30pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Musical Arts Center — University Orchestra, Cliff Colnot, conductor; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Auer Hall — Doctoral Recital, Aleksey Artemyev on piano; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ The Player’s Pub — The Mongrel Dogs featuring Alex Puga; 8pm

ASTRONOMY ◗ IU Kirkwood Observatory — Open house, Public viewing through the main telescope; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Ford-Crawford Hall — Artist Diploma/Doctoral Chamber Music Recital: Youngsin Seo on violin, Woonjoo Park on viola, JinSeo Joo on piano; 8:30pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bluebird — The Personnel; 9pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bishop — Sleeping Bag, Demon Beat; 9:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Bear’s Place — Colonel Angus; 11pm

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ONGOING:

ART ◗ IU Art Museum — Exhibits:

ART ◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Center — Exhibits:

ART ◗ IU SoFA Grunwald Gallery — Exhibit:

ART ◗ IU Kinsey Institute Gallery — Exhibits:

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibit:

ART ◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibits:

BOOKS ◗ IU Lilly Library — Exhibit:

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ Soup’s On — Exhibit:

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibit:

ARTIFACTS ◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibits:

The Ryder & The Electron Pencil. All Bloomington. All the time.

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