A few weeks ago, English instructor Amy Newman visited the Barnes & Noble bookstore to read her newly published series of poems titled “Fall.” A crowd of about 50 NIU students, faculty and friends came to listen to Newman read sections from her...

For a movie about ballroom dancing, its outcome is pretty decent. Directed by Peter Chelsom (“Serendipity,” “Town & Country”), “Shall We Dance?” is a movie about Chicago accountant John Clark (Richard Gere), who is happily married but...

With the presidential election less than two weeks away, Weekender wanted to find out which celebrities you would like to see not endorse candidates, but take up a campaign of their own: Krist Novoselic, the former Nirvana bassist, with aspirations of...

Every year, the third Saturday in October provokes relationship carnage over non-existent gifts, half-hearted gestures and those strange looks you keep giving that poster of the hot Olsen twin. Sweetest Day (or as I call it, the annual “Greg, you will...

Weekender needs your help. For the section’s Halloween edition, running Oct. 28, we hope to send students on a frigid, ghoulish race. We are looking for teams of two to four students to help us with the upcoming cover story. The Jonamac Orchard in Malta...

The terms “lo-fi” and “DIY” aren’t usually associated with dense layers of samples, drum loops, multiple-part harmonies and music so complex that it requires five multi-instrumentalists to play it live when it was recorded by only two. Yet the...

Stan Doty has come a long way since his days studying industrial engineering at the University of Colorado. “In 1977, I got a job as a stagehand working for the Grateful Dead through a friend,” Doty said. “After that, I was hooked. Being behind...

Before you walk into “Team America: World Police,” make sure you’re familiar with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These are the guys who make “South Park,” a television cartoon that once had an episode featuring Christopher Reeve eating aborted...

Some bands find success and then kind of stop. They have their sound and they’re sticking to it. Cake is one such band. With its fifth album, “Pressure Chief,” the group affirms, once again, its resistance to an overload of change. Full of easy...

Some people will always remember their first high school dance, or the day they met that special someone. For me, it was the day I did my first break-dance move called the “coffee grinder.” For my first time as the Jack of All Trades, I infiltrated...

Scrap Arts Music brings its blend of musical diversity to DeKalb tonight. The group features unique homemade instruments ranging from the Scorpion Drum to the Plankphone. Based out of Vancouver, Canada and led by founder Gregory Kozak, who doubles as...

“You want it. You got it ... for a limited time.” The enigmatic ad first appeared on this very page Sept. 27. It trumpeted “FREE FOOD,” such as a medium cheese pizza from Domino’s or a pepe sandwich from Jimmy John’s. All you had to do was...