| Les Savy Fav: indiedom's best-kept secret
A visit to Les Savy Fav's Web site reveals this proud motto: "Missing out on cashing in for over a decade." It's been the Brooklyn-based band's curse–or blessing–to be slightly ahead of the curve without ever quite benefiting from it. "We're not really a career band," acknowledges bassist Syd Butler, reached in Washington, D.C., where he and his family are visiting his mom for Thanksgiving weekend. "We never signed to a major label, we never took advantage of the Brooklyn hype or whatever the trend was. We just kept putting along, like the Little Engine That Could. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Liars, they're amazing bands, but signing to a major label wasn't something Les Savy Fav was interested in." Known for singer Tim Harrington's unpredictable live shenanigans–kissing audience members, dangling from the rafters–as much as for clever art-rock records like The Cat and the Cobra, Les Savy Fav has been one of indiedom's best-kept secrets for over 10 years.
Salvation from the Spiral: Schools fight truancy
Eric Padilla stands in front of the mural titled Face that he painted on the wall of Studio 121, a photography studio in Loveland. An aspiring artist, Eric paints and is enrolled in video and multimedia classes at Aims Community College. After attending two area high schools and flirting with gangs and other trouble, Padilla received his diploma from Aims and is now working to get his bachelors degree. ERIC BELLAMY / ebellamy@greeleytribune.com Browse Our Galleries .
Iggle Piggle co-star 'fired over suit complaint'
In another incident in May 2006, Mr Blake says he suffered pelvic injuries after being asked to lean over for long periods while wearing the pink and brown bear suit. After visiting hospital he was signed off work for a week with an injured pelvis. Mr Blake added: "I do believe in my heart of hearts that if I didn't mention anything about the suit or the verbal abuse, I would still be working at Ragdoll now. "I complained that the choreography caused me pain but I was told to carry on regardless. "It was fun being a teddy bear, it was a fun job. If I had just shut my mouth and took the abuse, I would still be there." In The Night Garden is a BBC children's television series, particularly aimed at babies and preschool children, produced in 2005 by Ragdoll Productions.
Radically visual
Two years ago, Ricardo Viera embraced the idea of an exhibition of snapshots with the typical gusto of a Cuban Falstaff. The director/curator of Lehigh University's galleries and museum operation relished the notion of a show of everything from family pictures to experimental collages. He knew it would neon-light his belief that photography is a level field, that a photograph is a flat world. Viera made just one major proposal to the exhibit's proponents, Donald Lokuta and Robert Yoskowitz, arts professors and owners of large collections of snapshots. Why not, he suggested, pair pictures by amateurs with pictures of similar subjects by renowned photographers represented in Lehigh's collection? Why not invite visitors to debate who takes, and what makes, a better photo? Organized by Viera, Lokuta and Yoskowitz, ''Vernacular to the Masters'' is a visual, intellectual hornet's nest.
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