Editor’s Note: From time to time, Sweeps will be introducing you to the vibrant personalities that embody the 60115. These people are truly DeKalb characters ... Tired of “Hail to the Chief” and “Still the One”? Well, consider Playback your...

Bob Pritchard, R-Hinckley and Democratic challenger Bob Brown will learn of their political destinies tonight, but what have we, the voter, learned about them as regular people? Sure, the two distinguished candidates for the 70th District state representative...

The Freshman Bench, also known as the “Kissing Bench,” has been on campus for more than a century but still sees action today. Located behind Davis Hall, the multi-stoned bench was the premier hook-up site for past NIU students. The Freshman Bench...

Ball State University better be prepared to roll out the red carpet 4 p.m. Saturday in Muncie, Ind. because No. 26 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll is coming to town to clip the Cardinals’ wings. NIU is coming off of a big win against Western Michigan...

For lighting students in the School of Theatre and Dance, this week has been one of the most important of their academic lives. Recently, the department formed an alliance with Upstaging Inc., one of the largest suppliers of digital lighting equipment...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A priest, a street cop and a drunken Irish vampire walk into a church … Never mind, I’m just going to stop myself. For this week’s Trading expedition, I decided to join the theater world to hang out with NIU’s...

Oh, you don’t want to rock? Ted Leo doesn’t care. On “Shake the Sheets,” Leo grabs you in a headlock and rarely lets up in the album’s 40 minutes. More stripped-down than his previous releases, Leo gets back to the raw basics with less complex...

Seeing World War II through posters is an educational time line about history. John Wright, owner of Wright’s Jewelry, 124 E. Lincoln Highway, decided to put together a gallery of his WWII posters at the Nehring Center Gallery in DeKalb. “It’s a...

In case you’re one of the many individuals developing a table-size levitation machine in a two-car garage, Shane Caruth has just created the story of your dreams. For the rest of us, this first-time director has just given the movie-going public a ticket...

Last week, Weekender asked students to volunteer teams of two to four students for a race through Jonamac Orchard’s corn maze. The response was overwhelming, with more than 30 groups replying in the first two days. With bragging rights at stake, as...

This 16-year-old heartthrob O’Ryan sets out on his self-titled album to prove his skills. Attracting the ladies is his forte with the ballads and songs like “Anything” saying, “You could be wifey material/Baby I’m not mad at you/Girl you get...

What would you do with a piece of wood? Would you paint it, draw on it, film it or dress it up? Ars Nova, an NIU art group, is posing that same question in an ongoing project this semester. The club is handing out pieces of wood to students and asking...