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Big Mike’s B-town 23 results
Writer Michael G. Glab says team nicknames and mascots adopted by Indiana’s high schools tell the stories of this 'high school hoops mad' Hoosier state. This 1905 photo shows the Peru High School girls team. Peru would later adopt the nickname the Tigers, as their town was the winter home to many circuses. | Photo courtesy of

Hoosier High School Mascots Tell the Stories of Our State
Michael G. Glab
As Indiana high schools enter basketball tourney season, writer Michael G. Glab looks at some of the unusual and interesting nicknames and mascots teams have had over the years, as told in the book Hoosiers All by Emerson Houck. From Aces to Zebras, Glab writes, these nicknames tell the stories of this “high school hoops mad” Hoosier state. Click here to read the article.
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Adam Nahas in Burl and Ingot Tool Library showing a piece of armor that he made. The Tool Library is part of Artisan Alley, the collective art space, studio, workshop, computer lab, gallery, and other projects that began in Nahas’s basement more than a decade ago. | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: Adam Nahas, Artist’s Artist
Michael G. Glab
The concept of Artisan Alley — the collective art space, studio, workshop, computer lab, gallery, and other projects — began in Adam Nahas’s basement more than a decade ago. But the path from home workshop to one of Bloomington’s largest art collectives was not a straight line. Writer Michael G. Glab maps out Nahas’s journey. Click here for the story.
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Zaineb Istrabadi (center), pictured here in Bloomington in 1974 with her father, Rasoul (right), and cousins, calls herself “a Baghdadi. Hoosier” Writer Michael G. Glab calls her the apotheosis of a Midwesterner in his profile of the longtime senior lecturer in IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Zaineb Istrabadi, Baghdadi Hoosier
Michael G. Glab
Zaineb Istrabadi calls herself “a Baghdadi Hoosier.” Writer Michael G. Glab calls her the apotheosis of a Midwesterner in his profile of the longtime senior lecturer in IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. He also calls her “a woman of the world” and a member of one of Bloomington’s most storied families. Click here to read the full story.
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Big Mike’s B-town: Vauhxx Booker, ‘Fortune Favors the Bold’
Michael G. Glab
“Everything inside me — starting with my name, Vauhxx — spoke to me and said I had to speak up,” says Vauhxx Booker, spokesperson for Bloomington’s Black Lives Matter. He also spoke with writer Michael G. Glab about his family’s deep-rooted American history, his shy childhood, and his potential plans for public office in Bloomington. Click here to read the full story.
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The Bloomington Cohousing Project is planning a collaborative housing community on the south side of Bloomington, where homeowners will live in individual houses but share other common amenities. Writer Michael Glab talks to co-founder Marion Sinclair and builder Loren Wood in his latest Big Mike's B-town. This early rendering shows individual homes designed to foster community, with shared green space, gardens, buildings, and other features. | Courtesy image

Big Mike’s B-town: Cohousing Project with Marion Sinclair and Loren Wood
Michael G. Glab
The term “building community” is rarely taken literally, but a fledgling project in town is doing just that. The Bloomington Cohousing Project is planning a collaborative housing community on the south side of Bloomington, where homeowners will live in individual houses but share other common amenities. Writer Michael Glab talks to co-founder Marion Sinclair and builder Loren Wood in his latest Big Mike's B-town. Click here to read the full story.
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Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, moved to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. Pictured here, Medina sits at his desk at the Indiana Geological and Water Survey. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

Big Mike’s B-town: Cristian Medina, Scientist, Poet, Chess Leader
Michael G. Glab
Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, has found plenty to keep him busy since moving to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. LP columnist Michael G. Glab talks to Medina about his hometown — bordered by ocean, mountains, and desert — geology and climate change, his work founding Cardboard House Press, and more in the latest Big-Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.
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Hoagy Carmichael holds son Hoagy Bix in the early 1940s. More recently, Hoagy Bix was in town for IU Theatre’s production of "Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Musical Journey," and he talked with writer Michael G. Glab about growing up in Hollywood, his famous namesakes (Hoagy and Bix), and the musical that is premiering in Bloomington. | HC Series 3, Box 3, item 33. Hoagy Carmichael Collection, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University

Big Mike’s B-town: Hoagy Bix Carmichael
Michael G. Glab
While Hoagy Bix Carmichael was in town for IU Theatre’s production of Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Musical Journey, he talked with writer Michael G. Glab about growing up in Hollywood, his famous namesakes (Hoagy and Bix), and the musical that is premiering in Bloomington. They even squeezed in some talk about fly-fishing. Click here to read the full story.
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Creating a community of misfits isn’t what music entertainer Darran Mosley intended or expected. After growing up in a “super-rough” neighborhood in Indianapolis, then working in computer systems in Chicago, he landed in Bloomington, where he works in IT by day and in music by night. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Darran Mosley, Misfit
Michael G. Glab
Creating a community of misfits isn’t what Darran Mosley intended or expected. After growing up in a “super-rough” neighborhood in Indianapolis, then working in computer systems in Chicago, he landed in Bloomington, where he works in IT by day and in music entertainment by night. Here, Michael G. Glab profiles this karaoke host, DJ, and vocalist. Click here to read the full story.
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David Brent Johnson works in the sound booth at WFIU. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: David Brent Johnson, Jazz Expert
Michael G. Glab
David Brent Johnson’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz seems to have come from a lifetime of devotion to the music. But WFIU’s jazz director didn’t “see the light” until his 20s — while drinking coffee in a Kirkwood cafe. Michael G. Glab gets the story of this Bloomington legend in Big Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.
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A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey (pictured here on the east side of the downtown Square) to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character. | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: Derek Richey, House Hugger
Michael G. Glab
A family project of photographing Bloomington’s history became a mission for Derek Richey to preserve its past. Now he works with a fervor to preserve the houses that give our community so much character, because “that’s why people want to live in Bloomington,” he says in this profile by Michael G. Glab. Click here to read the full story.
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Jean Magrane (left), who became Bloomington's first woman firefighter in 1987, with Greg Lucas at the “Jiffy Treat training day” in 2006. The fire department is often allowed to use condemned buildings for training purposes before the buildings are destroyed, such as the old Jiffy Treat on Kirkwood Avenue. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Jean Magrane, Firefighter
Michael G. Glab
After Jean Magrane became the city’s first female firefighter in 1987, it took years for most of her male colleagues to accept her as an equal. But she persevered because she valued the work more than any other job she’d had. Writer Michael G. Glab tells the story of this barrier-breaking firefighter. Click here to read the full story
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Pat East, founder of Hanapin Marketing and an investor in local tech start-ups, mentors local entrepreneurs to help them avoid the pitfalls he encountered along the road to success. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Pat East, Tech Guru
Michael G. Glab
LP columnist Michael G. Glab goes high tech! Well, at least, he talks to high-tech guru Pat East, who co-founded Hanapin Marketing and works with local start-ups and organizations such as Dimension Mill, Inc. East also mentors local entrepreneurs hoping to avoid the pitfalls he encountered along the road to success. Click here to read the full story.
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